Linguistics Workshop

The Spoken Discourse Research Studio at the University of Alberta
invites those interested to attend a cross-linguistic workshop at the
University of Alberta on Sept. 5-6, 2009, featuring presenters from
Asia, Europe, and North America. The workshop is the most recent
reincarnation of a series of workshops on the topic of turn
continuation which have been taking place in recent years. This will
be our fourth meeting, originally starting as a panel at the
International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) meeting in Toronto in 2003.

Conversation consists of exchanging speaking turns, and the focus of
the workshop is on the ways in which already completed speaking turns
are continued again by the same speaker, something which has been
studied under such terms as 'turn continuation' and 'increment'. This
is a rather mundane part of daily life, yet exploration into it
rewards us with a myriad of insights about the workings of human
language at the very basic level, including intonation, rhythm,
timing, grammar, non-verbals, and the various functions it serves. The
event is funded by SSHRC, the University of Alberta, the Faculty of
Arts, the China Institute, the Department of East Asian Studies, and
the Spoken Discourse Research Studio. The organizers are Barbara
Carter, a graduate student, and Yoshi Ono, an associate professor from
the Department of East Asian Studies. For more information about the
workshop please click here.