In-breaths to project talk

In beginning to speak, people often make audible in-breaths. In-breaths are one way to communicate: “I am about to say something.”

Fragment (1) shows a question–answer pair, where the answer is given in overlap with the question. (Where two speakers speak at once, this is marked with ‘[’ and ‘]’, with the respective talk lined up. The codes before data fragments are an index to the original sources.)

P and M are talking about making jam. In line 1, P asks M whether some acid is needed to make it set. In line 3, M marks that she is about to speak, by producing an audible in-breath (transcribed [h::] with [↓] to indicate that the air is coming into the body, not out) and then gives her answer while P1 in line 2 produces the end of his question. Audible in-breaths like this are one way for a speaker to display “I have something (more) to say.” Here, the “something to say” is an answer, and M produces her in-breath at a point relative to P’s talk where it is clear what kind of answer is relevant in the context. Producing audible in-breaths is a common device that allows speakers to co-ordinate turn-taking in conversation.