LIT6031 Chap.3 Turn Management and the Floor
Turn Management and the Floor
Turn-taking exposes who has the right to enter, continue or withhold speech. This chapter separates allocation from construction and maps speaker selection, self-selection, interruption, overlap, lapse, gap and attributable silence. It treats the floor as a dramatic resource: a character can hold formal status yet fail to complete a turn, while a brief self-selected contribution can redirect the whole scene.
Allocation asks who speaks next. A current speaker can select through a question, name, pronoun, gaze or gesture, while another participant may self-select. Construction asks what the holder does with the opportunity: offer a word, build a story, repair an error, refuse a projected answer or redirect the topic. Keeping these questions separate prevents long speech from being mistaken automatically for power.
Transition points make the system visible. An interruption before a possible completion differs from entry after a recognisable ending. Overlap may seize the floor, but it may also complete a shared joke or support the current speaker. Classify the direction of simultaneous contributions before assigning conflict. Later repair reveals whose project the group ratifies. Silence also has structure.
A pause inside one speaker's turn can mark planning or emphasis. When a named addressee does not answer, the resulting silence belongs interactionally to that participant even though everyone experiences the quiet. Who finally repairs the lapse shows which character accepts responsibility for keeping the exchange alive. Multi-party scenes require a floor map alongside a topic map.
One character may allocate speakers while another controls what counts as relevant. A short intervention can close an issue that several long turns failed to settle. Annotate each selection, self-selection, incomplete turn, overlap, silence and topic shift before interpreting status. Then compare the pattern across settings.
Someone who dominates informal conversation may yield in an institutional meeting; another may speak rarely but control information needed by everyone else. Power emerges from local rights, uptake and consequences rather than from word count alone.
What this chapter covers
- 01
turn allocation and construction
- 02
transition relevance places
- 03
speaker selection and self-selection
- 04
interruptions and collaborative overlap
- 05
lapse, gap and attributable silence
- 06
floor control as dramatic power
Worked example · free
Map a delayed answer
- 2Record the original selection.
- 2Classify the colleague's entry.
- 3Interpret the delayed reply and frame shift.
Key terms
- Turn Allocation
- The system by which the next speaker is selected or self-selects.
- Floor
- The recognised right to speak and have the contribution ratified.
- Attributable Silence
- Silence interactionally assigned to the participant selected to respond.
Turn Management and the Floor FAQ
Is every overlap an interruption?
No. Several speakers may overlap while collaboratively completing one idea, laughing together or supporting a response. Classify the direction of the contributions before deciding whether the overlap seizes, protects or shares the floor.
Who owns a silence after a question?
A named addressee selected by a question owns the expected response, so the silence is attributable to that person until someone else takes or repairs the turn. Everyone shares the quiet physically, but not interactionally.
Does the longest speaker always hold power?
No. A short turn may allocate the next speaker, close a topic or redefine the frame, while a long turn may depend on permission. Power analysis must connect turn length to allocation, uptake and consequences.
How can I map the floor in a crowded dramatic scene?
Prepare two parallel transcripts. In the first, mark every turn beginning and ending, incomplete unit, overlap, pause, interruption, self-selection and explicit nomination. In the second, mark the topic introduced, accepted, resisted, abandoned or reopened at the same points.
Use neutral labels before interpreting status: write that a speaker begins before a possible completion point rather than immediately calling the move aggressive. Next identify the local rule the scene establishes. A meeting may privilege a chair's nominations, a family exchange may allow overlap as affiliation, and a crisis may suspend ordinary sequencing. Compare each move with that baseline. Then follow uptake.
An interruption that receives silence and redirects action has different force from one ignored while the prior speaker completes the turn. Track information as well as duration, because the character who controls a needed fact can shape the floor with very few words.
For performance, rehearse the same overlap with different gaze targets, volumes and continuation choices; these variables reveal whether it competes, assists or protects. For writing, organise the paragraph around a change in participation rights: state the earlier allocation, quote the move that contests it, show how others respond, and explain what the audience learns about authority.
Finally compare a second setting, since conversational power is situational rather than a permanent amount.
Assessment move
Transcribe a short scene with one line per turn and mark selection arrows. Circle self-selections, interruptions and overlaps, then label every silence with the participant expected to respond. Only after the map is complete should you infer conflict, protection or exclusion.
