Turn Construction Unit
Encyclopedia
A turn construction unit (TCU) is the fundamental segment of speech in a conversation, as analyzed in conversation analysis
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The idea was introduced in (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson 1974) and is meant to describe pieces of conversation which may comprise an entire turn. The end of a TCU, called a transition relevance place (TRP), marks a point where the turn may be go to another speaker, or the present speaker may continue with another TCU.
Conversation analysis
Conversation analysis is the study of talk in interaction . CA generally attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction, whether institutional or in casual conversation.Inspired by ethnomethodology Conversation analysis (commonly abbreviated as CA) is the...
.
The idea was introduced in (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson 1974) and is meant to describe pieces of conversation which may comprise an entire turn. The end of a TCU, called a transition relevance place (TRP), marks a point where the turn may be go to another speaker, or the present speaker may continue with another TCU.