Recycling cotext: The impact of prior conversation on the emergence of episodes in a multiparty radio talk show

Abstract

This study explores cotext as a topical resource through analysis of a multiparty radio talk show. This article aims at an examination of the cotextual dimensions from which interlocutors proceed when they initiate new conversational episodes. The notion of recontextualization is defined. Recontextualizations build on 4 types of cotextual links involving (a) expressions, forms, and discursive acts, (b) meaning and reference of word tokens, (c) propositions, and (d) leitmotifs. The study shows that cotext is not simply the totality of preceding utterances in a conversation, and it is not a static local microcontext. Rather, relevant cotexts are constructed as actors create or identify cotextual links. These links indicate what actors recycle and also what they keep active in their streams of consciousness. Recycling cotext is an efficient strategy for generating new episodes, thus making conversation progress. It is a strategy central for coherence within the frames of the particular genres or activity types, such as radio talk shows, and also of importance for coherence construction in more ordinary genres.