The Grammar of Closings: the Use of Dislocated Constructions as Closing Initiators in French Talk-In-Interaction

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the role of left- and right-dislocated constructions in the closing down of topics and sequences in talk-in-interaction. We understand the grammatical properties of turns and turn construction units as instrumental parts of the action(s) that the turn or the turn construction unit is designed to perform within the moment-by-moment unfolding of talk. Consequently, we treat dislocated constructions as part of the resources speakers use to accomplish actions and to sustain their mutual coordination. Based on a corpus of 15 hours of informal research interviews involving 5 to 8 participants, the analysis reveals a complementary distribution of left- and right-dislocations in the closing down of sequences of talk: left-dislocations are used for same-turn closing initiation (i.e., closings initiated by the current speaker at the end of his or her lengthy turn) whereas right-dislocations are used for next-turn closing initiation (i.e., in closings initiated in a next turn by a next speaker).