Page 138 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 125

The pause lengths which the lecturer allows before taking his turns after Kathy’s
comments (lines 13 and 17) are 0.4 and 0.6 seconds.
(16) [Interaction: Aya]

1 Lect: ↑Just think about your own high school
2 experiences. (0.4) U:m (1.0) that may be
3 worth if you just sort of ta:lk about sorts
4 of clubs and extra curricula experiences.
5 (0.4) u:m (0.3) that were there, which
6 (0.2) maybe suggestive of the school.
7 (2.0) °( )° importance of
8 ( ),do you see reflections of any of
9 these in yours?
10 (0.4)
11 Kathy: Oh no just the sport ones,
12 (0.4)
13 Lect: Yeah:, so sport. That’s it.
14 (0.5)
15 Kathy: °That’s >about it<, (0.4) >that’s all<,°
16 (0.6)
17 Lect: Okay, what about y[ou, A y ]a?
-> 18 Aya?: [°( )] ?°
19 Aya: °( )°
20 (1.0)
21 Lect: What sort of high school did you go
22 to = where did you go [to] high [school].
-> 23 Aya: [I ] [I went] to
24 Aya: ah: Christian school,
25 Lect: Yeah.
26 Aya: It’s uh: down Sutherland,
27 Lect: Right.
28 (1.0)
29 Aya: They didn’t- (0.2) >they had it< like some
30 s- sports but they weren’t really (0.4)
31 doing this. (0.5) Cause (0.4) they had it
32 (0.2) but (0.2) and it wasn’t really
33 compulsory with (0.2) school subjects =
34 =>something like that?<
This seems to suggest different norms of unmarked inter-turn pauses. Following
Jefferson (1989), the 0.4–0.6 seconds of inter-turn pauses above may be represent-