Turn-taking in conversations involves transition relevance places where a change of turn is possible, interruptions where one person begins speaking before another is finished, and overlaps where two people begin speaking simultaneously. Specific devices for taking turns include linguistic cues like phrases requesting a turn or back-channel responses, linguistic phenomena like drops in pitch, and body language signals.

1. Turn-taking in Conversations
* How people take turns at talk
• A Transition Relevance Place (TRP):
a point in conversation where a change of turn is possible.
• An Interruption
Example: - Interviewee: Yes. Tell, tell me what it // is you want
- Interviewer: // umm. Um, may I
first of all request the introduction please?
• An Overlap
Example: - Interviewee: But not no more. Yeah =
- Interviewer: = What happened to them?

2. *Specific Devices for Taking the Turn
• Linguistic devices:
- Linguistic devices:
Example: If I may, Mr. Chairman; I wonder if I might say something; Can I just
come in here? Hang on a minute; Shut up will you? I can’t get a word in
- Back-channel responses: mm, ah-ha, yeah, no, right, sure …
• Linguistic phenomena
- A drop in pitch or use of grammatical tags
• Body language
- Head movement, eye contact, gestures, …