Interaction involvement and discourse strategies: The patterned use of cohesive devices in conversation

Abstract

Communicative competence entails the ability of speakers to mesh their utterances to form coherent conversation. The research reported here explored the relationship between interaction involvement as a traitlike dimension of communicative competence and the use of grammatical cohesive devices to create explicit ties within conversation. It was hypothesized that three dyad types exhibiting differing patterns of interaction involvement would be differentiated by the patterns of cohesive devices used to create ties within their conversation. Results indicated that the dyads differed significantly in the patterned use of interactive ellipsis and noninteractive reference within T‐units. These patterns were seen as indicators of discourse strategies differing in their relative reliance on minimal passing moves versus more elaborate responses. Finally, it was argued that these discourse strategies are responsive to the relative certainty/uncertainty of the dyads in tracking the flow of conversation and in determining appropriate ways to develop the topic of talk.