Turn organization and "uh(m)": an initial study

This study examines how speakers use the English non-lexical vocalisation uh(m) in turns with more than one turn-constructional unit. It focuses on 9 hours of video-recorded dyadic and triadic conversations between friends and family members. 243 stand-alone uh(m)s were identified in these data, and narrowed to 157 “turn-internal” uh(m)s that were analysed using collection-based conversation-analytic methods. Turn-internal uh(m)s were found to be a strong signal of turn continuation, and a resource for organizing both turns and larger courses of action. When organizing turns, speakers used turn-internal uh(m) to position the upcoming turn-constructional unit(s) as re-establishing their commitment to the central action(s) of the turn after having contingently committed themselves to a trajectory that has the potential to disrupt it. These findings affirm and demonstrate the importance of uh(m) for turn design, turn-taking, and action formation. Data are primarily in Australian English.