Pivots constructions as methods for perspective shift during turns at talk

Abstract

This paper reports results from a conversation analytic (CA) study on how participants use pivot constructions as methods to shift perspective during on-going turn construction while engaging in local communicative tasks and projects. Data are drawn from a corpus of everyday and institutional Swedish talk-in-interaction. Three main variants of perspective shifts are presented: shifts into explanatory talk; shifts in epistemic stance; and shifts during turns within an extended telling sequence. Perspective shifts with pivot construction may be used as an incremental method of redesigning the incipient turn for next actions (by self or other), as a method for avoiding involvement into the turn construction by other participants, or as a turn-keeping method when facing overlapping talk. The results indicate that grammar and grammatical structure are organized dialogically on a local level and emerge from speakers’ turn construction methods and turn-taking practices when participating in talk-in-interaction.