Beurtinitiële Herhalingen in Gesprekken bij een Sociale Dienst

The frequency and diversity of repeats in conversations between employees and clients of a social welfare office, suggest that repeats have an institutional function. This paper offers an analysis of the turn-initial repeat + contingent question in 34 conversations between employees and clients. This type of repeat occurs when an employee at the beginning of his/her turn literally repeats an item from the client's preceding turn and follows it up with a question. It is argued that in this procedure the repeat stabilkes an item from the client's turn as a topic that needs further elaboration. The contingent question specifies what aspect of this topic needs elaboration. This procedure allows the employee to collect the data that are needed to process the client's application.