The organization of turn-taking in fieldwork settings: A case study

This linguistic study explores the role of turn-taking within 3 fieldwork sessions between a linguist and a native Mocho’ speaker, aiming to address who overlaps more frequently and whether overlapping speech is a cooperative or competitive resource throughout the exchanges. I questioned whether the fieldwork recordings would have turn-taking similar to a conversation or whether the turn-taking would function like an interview, however, the turn-taking in these recordings function in a unique manner. Based on my analysis, the fieldwork exchanges have their own organization of turn-taking that incorporates aspects that are similar to both naturally-occurring conversation and classic interviews, encouraging overlap for the native language consultant to ensure accuracy of language data and transcription. Moreover, turn-taking system present in these fieldwork exchanges is dependent on both the sociocultural background of each speaker as well as their respective roles in language documentation efforts