Same-turn self-repairs in Farsi conversation : On their initiation and framing

This study presents an account of the initiation and framing of self-initiated self-repairs in ongoing turn-constructional units in Farsi conversation. Informed by conversation analysis, the analysis of 636 instances of self-repairs culled from three data sources representing a wide variety of interactions revealed that there is some language-specific prosodic patterning which applies to both the foregrounding for incipient repairs and repair solutions. The particle yani (I mean, meaning), predominantly used as a pre-positioned lexical initiator, is routinely used to index a rather specific repair operation: substituting a wholly or partially uttered element of the current turn or repackaging the terms in which it has been couched. Unlike lexical initiators which are infrequent, retracting is frequently launched to fashion repair solutions, but is highly constrained by language-specific(morpho)syntactic rules. Moreover, the complementary distribution of the use of lexical initiators and retracting suggests a possible association between repair initiation and framing. The findings provide further evidence of how self-repairs which constitute a universal feature of interaction are shaped by local semiotic resources of Farsi, especially grammatical possibilities, lending further support to the interdependency of self-repairs and syntax-for-conversation.Peer reviewe

On dynamics of telephone conversation closedown in Farsi

This study sought to unearth the dynamics of telephone closedown ritual in Farsi in terms of pre-closing and terminal exchanges in non-institutional settings and to compare them with similar sequences in American English. The participants were native Farsi speakers living in Iran. The analysis of the data from 39 mundane mobile phone calls, informed by Conversation Analysis, suggests that as in English, in the closing-implicative environment where the core business of the call is accomplished, occasioning the move toward closing, some pre-closing signals such as bashe (ok), kheili khob (alright), and kho(b) bashe (ok then), foreshadow initiation of closing, providing the possibility for parties to interactionally bring calls to closure, shade them or even topicalize something new. However, unlike American English in which tokens such as ok and alright could be used in closing- and non-closing-implicative environments alike, the frequently-used token of bashe bashe (ok ok) can be potentially closing-relevant and the interrogative form kari nadari? (Anything else?) and endearment terms, tied to closedown ritual, regularly warrant shutting calls down, severely limiting the possibility of shading the current topic-in-progress and effectively precluding the possibility of topicalizing something new, which makes a strong case for their language- or culture-specificity. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe