Some Sequential Aspects of Yes/No Questions in English Conversation

Abstract

Kim, Haeyeon. 2007. Some Sequential Aspects of Yes/No Questions in English Conversation. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 32-2, 293-317. Adopting an interactional perspective in the study of conversation, this research attempts to characterize the sequential structures of yes/no questions in English conversation. To achieve this goal, this study investigates the distributional properties and sequential structures of yes/no questions by examining the contexts where yes/no questions occur. This research explores the sequential structures of yes/no questions in terms of the notions of adjacency pairs and preference organization in conversation analysis (Schegloff 1972, Sacks 1972/1992, Pomerantz 1978, 1984, among others). Examination of the yes/no questions in the present database shows that 68.7% are responded with yes/no answers in the immediately next turns. By examining these tokens, this study explores reasons for not forming adjacency pairs: (i) the current speaker's turn continuation, (ii) lack of sharedness of information between the participants, (iii) repair or insertion sequences, and (iii) interruption or overlap, and so on. This research also explores the sequential structures of yes/no questions in terms of preference organization, showing that answers to yes/no questions responded with negations are expanded with elaboration TCUs. Exploration of the properties of yes/no questions shows a close relationship between grammatical forms and sequential structures, suggesting the need to investigate grammatical constructions in spoken discourse from an interactional perspective. (Chung-Ang University)