Abstract for Opening Up Closings

Emanuel A. Schegloff and Harvey Sacks: 
"Opening Up Closings,"  Semiotica,
VIII, 4 (1973)  289-327. 

Our aim in this paper is to report in a 
preliminary fashion on analyses we have been
developing of closings of conversation. Although
it may be apparent to intuition that the unit 'a
single coxiversation' does not simply end, but is 
brought to a close, our initial task is to develop
a technical basis for a closing problem. This we
try to derive from a consideration of some 
features of the most basic sequential organization
of conversation we know of - the organization of
speaker turns. A partial solution of this problem
is developed, employing resources drawn from the 
same order of organization. The incompleteness of
that solution is shown, and leads to an 
elaboration of the problem, which requires 
reference to quite different orders of sequential
organization in conversation - in particular, the 
organization of topic talk, and the overall
structural organization of the unit 'a single 
conversation'. The reformulated problem is used to
locate a much broader range of data as relevant to
the problem of closings, and some of that data is 
discussed in detail. Finally, an attempt is made
to specify the domain for which the closing 
problems, as we have posed them, seem apposite.


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