How to Disengage: Suspension, Body Torque, and Repair

Abstract

This article uses conversation analysis to study other-initiated repair in multiactivity situations. The article focuses on two aspects of the repair initiator’s embodied conduct directly connected to the initiator’s involvement in multiactivity: body torque and the suspension of a parallel manual activity. The analysis reveals how the body torque and suspension of manual activity, when co-occurring with other-initiations of repair, display the OIR-speaker’s temporary disengagement from the manual activity and how this embodied conduct communicates downward prioritization of the manual activity and increased involvement in the interaction. This article shows that, to participants in a conversation and simultaneously involved in multiactivity, solving interactional trouble is prioritized over the progression of the parallel manual task and that this hierarchization of activities displays a strong preference toward restoration and maintenance of intersubjectivity. Data are in English and in French with English translation.