Abstract for Sequencing in Conversational Openings

Emanuel A. Schegloff: "Sequencing in 
Conversational Openings," American 
Anthropologist, 70, 6 (1968) 1075-1095.     

An attempt is made to ascertain rules for the 
sequencing of a limited part of natural
conversation and to determine some properties and
empirical consequences of the operation of those
rules. Two formtdations of conversational openings
are suggested and the properties "nonterminality"
and "conditional relevance" are developed to 
explicate the operation of one of them and to 
suggest some of its interactional consequences. 
Some discussion is offered of the fit between the
sequencing structure and the tasks of 
conversational openings.


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