Abstract
In the post-meeting interviews, the Chinese participants mentioned how carefully they had prepared and rehearsed the whole procedure of the meeting. This drew my attention to the coordination of the Chinese official speakers’ turns. Close examination of the topic structure of the Chinese speakers’ turns indicate that their topics are seamlessly synthesized. It seems that the Chinese speakers had a well-prepared action scheme for problem talk that involves complicated cross-speaker cross-turn coordination. It is argued below that this cross-turn coordination is a relational strategy that was designed to avoid direct conflict at the meeting.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Ping Du
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Du, P. (2015). Coordinated Turn-Taking as Problem Talk Strategy. In: Intercultural Communication in the Chinese Workplace. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137381040_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137381040_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-67769-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38104-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Language & Linguistics CollectionEducation (R0)