Click-Initiated Self-Repair in Changing the Sequential Trajectory of Actions-in-Progress

Abstract

ABSTRACT Clicks are velarically initiated ingressive stops. This study investigates the interactional uses of clicks in approximately 12 hours of Mandarin face-to-face conversations. It focuses on the TCU-medial clicks that occur in a type of action repair: a syntactically incomplete TCU followed by a click and the start of a new TCU. The click-initiated action repair changes the projected trajectories of actions-in-progress. It seems to be used to deal with two types of problems: the social and interactional inappositeness and sensitivity of the speaker’s ongoing action shown through coparticipants’ visually displayed orientations, and the speaker’s own change of state. This study adds to our knowledge about the types of practices that may be used to accomplish repair and the types of problems that the action repair may be mobilized to deal with. Data are in Mandarin Chinese with English translation.