Abstract

What are speakers doing when they overlap with the previous speaker and start their response at a recognition point well before the transition-relevance place? This article adds to the body of literature on overlapping talk initiated by Gail Jefferson and shows that speakers use these turn-onset points to show that they have their own reasons to agree with what the first speaker is saying. That gets on record an equal, independent commitment to the assertion that the previous speaker is making. The overlapping speaker strives for a more balanced, symmetrical relationship with the current speaker with regard to time, speakership, and agency. The data are in Finnish and Estonian with English translation.