The focus of
much interactional linguistic research is on establishing evidence for
classical linguistic units like word, phrase, clause, and even sentence, as
units relevant for participants in interaction (see, for example, Ford, Fox
& Thompson 2013; Linell 2013; Szczepek Reed & Raymond 2013). The
central units of language in interaction are turns, and the formulation of a
turn is crucially affected by its position in a conversational sequence. Viewing
grammar from this perspective is what Schegloff (1996) calls “positionally
sensitive” grammar. This special issue aims to describe grammar in positionally
sensitive terms, focusing on the question of units in one sequential
environment in conversation, namely in responsive turns. The articles in this
issue explore the nature of linguistic and interactional units in responsive
positions in talk, adopting an interactional linguistic approach and using the
methods of conversation analysis and functional linguistics. Responsive turns
frequently consist of units smaller than clauses, while turns that initiate sequences,
such as questions, are more likely to be formulated as clause-sized units. The articles
in this special issue focus on the size, syntactic nature, prosodic delivery
and bodily-visual construction of responsive units, and the social actions
those units serve to perform.