Turn-design at turn-beginnings: Multimodal resources to deal with tasks of turn-construction in German

Based on German speaking data from various activity types, the range of multimodal resources used to construct turn-beginnings is reviewed. It is claimed that participants in talk-in-interaction need to deal with four tasks in order to construct a turn which precisely fits the interactional moment of its production:1.Achieve joint orientation: The accomplishment of the socio-spatial prerequisites necessary for producing a turn which is to become part of the participants’ common ground.2.Display uptake: Next speaker needs to display his/her understanding of the interaction so far as the backdrop on which the production of the upcoming turn is based.3.Deal with projections from prior talk: The speaker has to deal with projections which have been established by (the) previous turn(s) with respect to the upcoming turn.4.Project properties of turn-in-progress: The speaker needs to orient the recipient to properties of the turn s/he is about to produce.Turn-design thus can be seen to be informed by tasks related to the multimodal, embodied, and interactive contingencies of online-construction of turns. The four tasks are ordered in terms of prior tasks providing the prerequisite for accomplishing a later task.

► Argues why turn-construction needs to be dealt with from a multimodal perspective.
► Four tasks which are to be dealt with when designing a turn at talk.
► These four tasks are ordered according to an interactional logic in the service of accomplishing intersubjectivity.
► These four tasks account for the choice of multimodal resources at turn-beginnings.