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Cited by 1,533Language, Discourse, Communication StrategiesLanguage and cultural evolutionPhonetics and Phonology Research

Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation

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Stivers, Tanya, Enfield, N. J., Brown, Penelope, Englert, Christina, Hayashi, Makoto, Heinemann, Trine, Hoymann, Gertie, Rossano, Federico +3 more·2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.0903616106PMC PMC2705608
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Abstract

Informal verbal interaction is the core matrix for human social life. A mechanism for coordinating this basic mode of interaction is a system of turn-taking that regulates who is to speak and when. Yet relatively little is known about how this system varies across cultures. The anthropological literature reports significant cultural differences in the timing of turn-taking in ordinary conversation. We test these claims and show that in fact there are striking universals in the underlying pattern of response latency in conversation. Using a worldwide sample of 10 languages drawn from traditional indigenous communities to major world languages, we show that all of the languages tested provide clear evidence for a general avoidance of overlapping talk and a minimization of silence between conversational turns. In addition, all of the languages show the same factors explaining within-language variation in speed of response. We do, however, find differences across the languages in the average gap between turns, within a range of 250 ms from the cross-language mean. We believe that a natural sensitivity to these tempo differences leads to a subjective perception of dramatic or even fundamental differences as offered in ethnographic reports of conversational style. Our empirical evidence suggests robust human universals in this domain, where local variations are quantitative only, pointing to a single shared infrastructure for language use with likely ethological foundations.

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Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.0903616106

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  • Turn-taking in everyday conversation is fast, with median latencies in corpora of conversational speech often reported to be under 300 ms.

    “Turn-taking in everyday conversation is fast, with median latencies in corpora of conversational speech often reported to be under 300 ms.”

    From Timing in Conversation (2023) · cites this paper as Stivers et al., 2009

  • Stivers and colleagues (2009) found median gap durations between yes/no questions and the following answers in ten languages between 0 ms and 300 ms.

    “Stivers and colleagues (2009) examined the gaps between yes/no questions and the following answers in ten languages and found median gap durations between 0 ms and 300 ms.”

    From Timing in Conversation (2023) · cites this paper as Stivers et al., 2009

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Authors
Stivers, T., Enfield, N. J., Brown, P., Englert, C., Hayashi, M., Heinemann, T., Hoymann, G., Rossano, F., de Ruiter, J. P., Yoon, K.-E., & Levinson, S. C.
Affiliations
  • Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (NL)
  • University of Groningen (NL)
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
  • University of Southern Denmark (DK)
  • Language and Cognition Group, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands;
  • University of Florida (US)
Corresponding author
Stivers, Tanya
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2009-06-30
Volume
106
Issue
26
Pages
10587-10592
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.0903616106
PMC
PMC2705608
OpenAlex
W2162634167
Cited by
1,533
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 116 · 2025: 107 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 117 · 2022: 98 · 2021: 107 · 2020: 213 · 2019: 155 · 2018: 123 · 2017: 96 · 2016: 63 · 2015: 82 · 2014: 60 · 2013: 47 · 2012: 34
FWCI
215.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion)
  • University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (publishedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
  • Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Maryland Shared Open Access Repository (USMAI Consortium) (submittedVersion)
  • PUB – Publications at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld University) (submittedVersion)
  • Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld (Universität Bielefeld) (submittedVersion)
  • Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (University of Maryland College Park)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
Keywords
turn-taking, conversation, response latency, cultural variation, universals, cross-linguistic comparison, indigenous languages, ethology
MeSH terms
Communication, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Humans, Language, Linguistics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Verbal Behavior

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