Public defense: Kristian Skedsmo

In this thesis, I present a study of the ways in which deaf, proficient signers of Norwegian Sign Language (NTS) in informal, multiperson conversations deal with trouble of understanding or perception. The study is conducted within the methodological and theoretical constraints of conversation analysis. 

This is an approach to studying language and communication that uses (sometimes extensive) corpora of naturally occurring talk to induce participants’ preferences for conducting various actions in conversation.

For this study, a corpus was collected, consisting of six conversations where groups of three to six participants are having an informal chat during a break during their working hours. Findings show different practices that make the other participants repeat, rephrase, or explain what they just said. These practices are referred to as other-initiations of self-repair. 

Some of these repair-initiations are described as open in that they do not give any clue about exactly what was problematic. They hence treat the whole prior turn as a trouble-source. Examples in English are for example, “Huh?” or “Pardon?”. Other formats of repair-initiations are restricted and to different degrees and in various ways locate the problematic part of the troublesome turn, like for example, “Who did you say you met?” or “What do you mean by cynical?”. 

The different formats of other-initiation of self-repair in the totally 60 minutes of informal multiperson interaction are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively and compared to other spoken and signed languages. Among the results are that the restricted repair-initiations containing a “suggestion” (a candidate offer) are the most frequent, and that among the open repair-initiations, those expressed without any lexicalized unit dominate. 

An implicit practice for other-initiating self-repair is the freeze-look response, which is also found in Argentine Sign Language. It consists of the recipient holding their gaze on the utterer after the completion of the trouble-source utterance, keeping the face and the rest of the body still, as if not acknowledging the completion of the utterance. We cannot tell if this is an intentional practice, but we can see that it works.

Contrary to earlier claims, repair-initiations quite often do not instantly lead to self-repair that restores the progress of the conversation. One trouble-source may be targeted two or several times. A tentative self-repair can also become a new trouble-source. 

This way we get multiple repair-initiations, linked together in different ways. Occasionally, even a repair-initiation can become target of a subsequent repair-initiation, constituting an embedded sequence of repair that must be sorted out before the embedding sequence can be resolved and the conversation can be brought back on track. 

Findings from the study show that candidate offer repair-initiations are more frequent in the last and closing positions, restoring the progress of the conversation. Open-class repair-initiations, and especially the freeze-look responses, are more frequent among first attempts, which do not necessarily lead to a solution of the trouble.

To examine conversations with close scrutiny, conversation analysis makes use of detailed transcripts. Such transcripts typically are designed to convey not only what is said, but precisely how it is said, with stuttering, hesitations, repeats, laughter, changes in pitch and pace etc. 

Also overlapping talk, when people are talking simultaneously, is carefully noted. Multiple lines are employed to show embodied conduct such as facial expressions, gaze, and gestures, but also for translation and glossing, when the data examined is in a language other than that of the publication, as is the case in this study.

This thesis contributes to research on conversational repair in NTS, and, methodologically, also to the field of transcription. A recurrent challenge in this work has been how to present the signed language extracts in ways that both are possible to understand for those who do not know Norwegian (or any) signed language, and that serve the language a minimum of justice. 

The thesis discusses and experiments with different ways of notating the conversations with its often complex trajectories and communicating them to the reader through different media, such as subtitled, sometimes slowed down video-clips, multilinear transcripts with the signs represented with English words, translations and comic-strip inspired graphic transcripts. 

These combine the photo sequences found in numerous written texts about signed communication with speech bubbles and other conventions known from comics.

This study examines conversations between deaf, NTS signing coworkers, in quite mundane situations. The results can serve as a baseline for examinations of conversational repair practices in other, more specialized contexts, like interpreter-mediated conversation, or learners of Norwegian Sign Language in conversation with each other or with proficient signers.