Backchannel (linguistics)

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In linguistics, backchannels are listener responses at a point in time of a conversation where another person is the primary speaker. Backchannels can be both verbal and non-verbal in nature, and are frequently phatic expressions, primarily serving a social or meta-conversational purpose, rather than involving substantial two-way communication.

Definition and use[edit]

The term was coined by Victor Yngve in 1970, in the following passage: "In fact, both the person who has the turn and his partner are simultaneously engaged in both speaking and listening. This is because of the existence of what I call the back channel, over which the person who has the turn receives short messages such as 'yes' and 'uh-huh' without relinquishing the turn."[1]

The term "backchannel" was designed to imply that there are two channels of communication operating simultaneously during a conversation.[2] The predominant channel is that of the speaker who directs primary speech flow. The secondary channel of communication (or backchannel) is that of the listener which functions to provide continuers or assessments,[3] defining a listener's comprehension and/or interest. Recent research, which can be seen below, has also suggested new terms for these two functions. They have proposed the term generic in place of continuers and specific in place of assessments.[citation needed]

Applicability[edit]

Backchannel communication is present in all cultures and languages, though frequency and use may vary. Confusion or distraction can occur during an intercultural encounter if participants from both parties are not accustomed to the same backchannel norms.[4]

Types of backchannels[edit]

Due to research development in recent years,[5][6] backchannel responses have been expanded to include sentence completions, requests for clarification, brief statements, and non-verbal responses and now fall into three categories: non-lexical, phrasal, and substantive.[7]

Non-lexical backchannels[edit]

A non-lexical backchannel is a vocalized sound that has little or no referential meaning but still verbalizes the listener's attention, and that frequently co-occurs with gestures. In English, sounds like uh-huh and hmm serve this role. Non-lexical backchannels generally come from a limited set of sounds not otherwise widely used in contentful conversational speech; as a result, they can be used to express support, surprise, or a need for clarification at the same time as someone else's conversational turn without causing confusion or interference.[8]

English allows for the reduplication, or repetition, of syllables within a non-lexical backchannel, such as in responses like uh-huh, mm-hm, or um-hm, as well as for single-syllable backchanneling. In a study examining the use of two-syllable backchannels that focused on mm and mm-hm, Gardner found that the two tokens are generally not identical in function, with mm being used more productively as a continuer, a weak acknowledgment token, and a weak assessment marker. In contrast, mm-hm is generally used as a backchannel to signal that the speaker is yielding their conversational turn and allowing the other speaker to maintain control of the conversational floor.[9]

Phrasal and substantive backchannels[edit]

Phrasal backchannels most commonly assess or acknowledge a speaker's communication with simple words or phrases (for example, "Really?" or "Wow!" in English). Substantive backchannels consist of more substantial turn-taking by the listener and usually manifest as asking for clarification or repetitions.[citation needed]

One of the conversational functions of phrasal backchannels is to assess or appraise a previous utterance. Goodwin argues that this is the case for the phrasal backchannel oh wow, where use of the backchannel requires a specific conversational context where something unexpected or surprising was said. Similarly, more substantive backchannels such as oh come on, are you serious? require a context where the speaker is responding to something exasperating or frustrating. In both of these cases, Goodwin argues that the backchannels focus only on addressing some aspect of the immediately proceeding utterance rather than the larger conversation itself.[10] As a result, they have a broad conversational distribution, appearing both in the middle of extended talk as well as at the end of longer conversational turns.[citation needed]

Recent research[edit]

Research in 2000 has pushed back on the notion of backchannels, in which the listener's role is merely to receive information provided by the speaker. Bavelas, Coates, and Johnson[11] put forth evidence that listeners' responses help shape the content of the speaker. They grouped acknowledgment tokens into two categories: generic and specific. Generic responses could be considered back channels and would include mm hm and yeah, while specific responses would involve a reaction to the given context. Examples might include Oh! or a facial display of concern.[11]

They transcribed students telling a fellow participant about a close call experience that they had had. With one group of participants, they had the listener perform another task to distract them from the story being told. The researchers asked independent reviewers to code the verbal and visual responses of the narration events as generic or specific. They also asked other independent reviewers to gauge the quality of the narration in each case.[11]

They concluded that the responses from the distracted listeners included significantly fewer specific responses than from the undistracted listeners. In addition, they found that the quality of the narration was dramatically lower when the listener was distracted. Their basic contention was that listeners are co-narrators and help the storyteller in his or her narration. In other words, a storyteller tells a better story with an audience that is engaged than one that is not.[11]

Tolins and Foxtree have also published research demonstrating how backchannel communication influences speakers. Their research was specifically looking at how speakers respond to generic responses compared to specific responses.[12]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Yngve, Victor. "On getting a word in edgewise," page 568. Papers from the Sixth Regional Meeting [of the] Chicago Linguistic Society, 1970.
  2. ^ White, Sheida. "Backchannels across cultures: A study of Americans and Japanese ." Language in society (1989): 59-76.
  3. ^ Li, Han. "Patterns of Backchannel Responses in Canadian-Chinese Conversations" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, TBA, San Francisco, CA, May 23, 2007 <Not Available>. 2009-02-04 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p169308_index.html>
  4. ^ Ward, Nigel G. and Yaffa Al Bayyari. "American and Arab Perceptions of an Arabic Turn-Taking Cue." Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (2010): 270-275.
  5. ^ Iwasaki, S. (1997). "The Northridge earthquake conversations: The floor structure and the 'loop' sequence in Japanese conversation". Journal of Pragmatics. 28(6): 661–693.
  6. ^ Tottie, Gunnel (1991). Aijmer, Karin, ed. English corpus linguistics: studies in honour of Jan Svartvik. London: Longman. pp. 254–271.
  7. ^ Young, Richard F. and Jina Lee. "Identifying units in interaction: Reactive tokens in Korean and English conversations." Journal of Sociolinguistics (2004): 380-407.
  8. ^ Ward, Nigel (2006). "Non-lexical conversational sounds in American English". Pragmatics & Cognition. 14(1): 129–182.
  9. ^ Gardner, Rod (1997). "The Conversation Object Mm: A Weak and Variable Acknowledging Token". Research on Language and Social Interaction. 30(2): 131–156.
  10. ^ Goodwin, Charles (1986). "Between and within: Alternative sequential treatments of continuers and assessments". Human Studies. 9: 205–217.
  11. ^ a b c d Bavelas, Janet B.; Coates, Linda; Johnson, Trudy (2000). "Listeners as Co-Narrators". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 79: 941–952 – via EBSCOHost.
  12. ^ Tolins, Jackson; Fox Tree, Jean E. (2014). "Addressee backchannels steer narrative development". Journal of Pragmatics. 70: 152–164.
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