A Cognitive Interpretation Of Conversational Turn-Taking On The Basis Of Relevance Theory

In conversational events, people take turns to speak. Turn-taking is a central phenomenon of conversational reality. Many sociologists, linguists and anthropologists both at home and abroad have made quite comprehensive study on conversational turn-taking. Yet most of their studies are focused on turn-taking organization in various discourses, analyzing the phenomenon from a sociological or linguistic perspective and ignoring the cognitive mechanism that governs its production.This thesis is aimed at finding how turn-taking organization is influenced by interlocutors'cognitive ability. First, the writer makes a comprehensive review of the previous studies on conversational turn-taking. Then Relevance Theory is introduced as the theoretical basis for analysis. Turn-taking organization is also discussed systematically. It is classified into normal turn-taking and abnormal turn-taking. The former is an abstract, prescriptive ideal while the latter, including kinds of silences and overlaps, constitutes the reality of everyday conversation. On the basis of such conceptual framework, the thesis tries to explore the influence of interlocutors'linguistic knowledge, the influence of the subject matters and the influence of acquaintance of interlocutors on turn-taking organization.The methods of quantitative study and theoretical analysis are adopted in the thesis. Data are collected from tape-recordings of everyday conversation in different situations and are transcribed and analyzed with computer software. In the end, it is found that interlocutors'linguistic knowledge and their acquaintance of the subject matter both influence the time length of turn intervals and the occurrence of silences and overlaps. However, interlocutors'acquaintance of each other does not have much effect on those factors. This is because communication, according to Relevance Theory, is a process of searching for a cognitive context in which a given utterance is maximally relevant. If the context is easily accessed, little effort will be needed to produce contextual effect. The utterance in the context, therefore, is of great relevance. Turns are exchanged swiftly; there are few silences and frequent occurrence of overlaps.By carrying out the research from a cognitive perspective, the thesis undoubtedly enriches the present study of conversational turn-taking and demonstrates the power of cognitive pragmatics. It attaches great importance to interlocutors'cognitive ability. Therefore, it has much significance to reduce misunderstanding and ensure successful communication, especially the intercultural communication. It also provides implications for foreign language learning and teaching.