Abstract for Preference for Self Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation

Emanuel A. Schegloff, Gail Jefferson and 
Harvey Sacks: "The Preference for Self- 
Correction in the Organization of Repair 
in Conversation," Language, 53,2 (1977) 361-382.

An 'organization of repair' operates in 
conversation, addressed to recurrent problems in
speaking, hearing, and understanding. Several 
features of that organization are introduced to 
explicate the mechanism which produces a strong 
empirical skewing in which self-repair 
predominates over other-repair, and to show the
operation of a preference for self-repair in the
organization of repair. Several consequences of 
the preference for self-repair for conversational
interaction are sketched.



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