In Conversation Analysis, what is an 'adjacency pair'?
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Correct answer: Two ordered utterances by different speakers; the first expects a specific second
Adjacency pairs are foundational units of talk-in-interaction, consisting of two ordered parts spoken by different people (e.g., Question/Answer, Greeting/Greeting, Offer/Acceptance). The production of the first part creates a condition of 'conditional relevance' for the second part. If the expected second part is missing, its absence is noticeable and carries communicative meaning.
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