Talking while Listening: Sokuon as an Adjustment Space in Japanese Conversation

Abstract

Sokuon have been studied for their features and functions as phonological units in speech. Using the methodology of conversation analysis, this study examines actual conversational data, aiming to describe the interactive adjustment of using consequently stretched sokuon within words. Three practices were analyzed: 1) When a speaker invites a response by maintaining the closure of the sokuon at the end of the utterance and then choosing what to do next; 2) When a new utterance is initiated before the speaker completes his/hers, and he/she avoids overlapping the utterance by maintaining the closure of the sokuon; 3) When a speaker implements an urgent action by maintaining the closure of the sokuon near the beginning of the utterance while prioritizing the overlapping partner’s utterance. We show that sokuon are used as adjustment space to monitor the other speaker’s utterance while maintaining the syntactic trajectory of the utterance. Everyday conversation and conversations during the live broadcasts of car racing events were analyzed.