Pitch and the Projection of More Talk

ABSTRACT This study investigates prototypically “turn-final” pitch features (fall-to-low) at points of possible turn-completion where the same speaker continues. It is shown that points of possible turn-completion accompanied by fall-to-low and followed by same-speaker continuation only rarely engender incoming talk. It is shown that such points are frequently accompanied by nonpitch talk-projecting phonetic features and that the presence of these features may constrain the nature of any incoming talk. The results of the study should serve as caution to researchers with regard to an overemphasis on intonation when describing and analyzing talk-in-interaction. Data are from audio recordings of American English telephone calls.

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