37.2491, Confs: Panel at IPC20: Analysing Word Searches in Social Interaction Across Turns, Sequences, and Activities (Finland)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2491. Mon Jul 27 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2491, Confs: Panel at IPC20: Analysing Word Searches in Social Interaction Across Turns, Sequences, and Activities (Finland)

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Date: 24-Jul-2026
From: Florence Oloff [oloff at ids-mannheim.de]
Subject: Panel at IPC20: Analysing Word Searches in Social Interaction Across Turns, Sequences, and Activities


Panel at IPC20: Analysing Word Searches in Social Interaction Across
Turns, Sequences, and Activities
Short Title: IPC20

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: Florence Oloff
Contact Email: oloff at ids-mannheim.de
Meeting URL: https://pragmatics.international/page/IPC20Helsinki

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis;
Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics

Submission Deadline: 15-Oct-2026

This panel focuses on the study of word searches as interactional
phenomena that affect the progressivity of turns, sequences, and
activities. In contrast to cognitive approaches, which treat troubles
in turn production, such as speech perturbations or hesitations,
primarily as rooted in individual, cognitive processes (e.g. Levelt
1983; Goodglass et al. 1989), conversation-analytic research has
investigated word searches as a particular type of repair (e.g.
Schegloff et al. 1977) and emphasised their collaborative nature,
highlighting their interactional and sequential organisation (e.g.
Goodwin 1979, 1981; Lerner 2013). Studies taking into account the
multimodal, embodied dimension of communication have shown that the
trajectory of word searches is jointly managed by participants,
particularly when shifting from solitary to collaborative searching
activities (e.g. Goodwin/Goodwin 1986; Hayashi 2003; Dressel 2020;
Auer/Zima 2021). Previous interactional research has mostly focused on
asymmetric settings, such as second language interactions (e.g.
Brouwer 2003; Margutti 2007; Koshik/Seo 2012; Greer 2013) or
professional encounters (e.g. Merlino/Traverso 2009; Merlino 2010),
where word searches are often particularly visible, marked, or
frequent. Despite this substantial body of research, it remains
unclear how word searches can be meaningfully defined and how they can
be distinguished from similar interactional phenomena (e.g. Lerner
1996, 2013; Oloff 2014).
The panel aims to investigate how (especially word- and
formulation-related) “searching activities” in talk-in-interaction
emerge and are embedded in specific sequential environments; how
participants mobilise particular grammatical, embodied, or material
resources for doing so; and what kinds of social actions – beyond the
retrieval of a particular lexical item – participants can accomplish
through them.
We therefore welcome contributions that investigate word searches and
related phenomena in various languages from an interactional,
sequential, and multimodal perspective and that address, among others,
the following questions:
 - Which syntactic, prosodic, lexical or non-lexical resources do
speakers of different languages use to format word searches, also from
a cross-linguistic perspective?
 - How can word searches be usefully delimited with respect to
adjoining phenomena such as self-repair, pre-emptive completions, or
unfinished turns, especially given their multimodal realisation?
 - In which ways are intra-turn or otherwise “local” word searches
linked to larger topical and/or sequential trajectories?
 - How can different ways of interrupting the progressivity of a turn
be systematically linked to specific actions, tasks, or even
institutional agendas?
 - What kinds of other social actions can be accomplished through
“doing searching for a word” (e.g., managing (dis)preference,
expressing stances, negotiating epistemics)?
Abstracts (250-500 words) to this panel must be submitted individually
via the conference platform by 15 October 2026
( https://ipra2027.exordo.com/login ). We recommend consulting the
IPrA website for detailed information on the submission process
( https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027 ).
Organisers:
Florence Oloff (Leibniz Institute for the German Language)
Sara Merlino (University of Copenhagen)
Heike Baldauf-Quilliatre (University Lumière Lyon 2)
References:
- Auer, P. & Zima, E. (2021). On word searches, gaze, and
co-participation. Gesprächsforschung - Online - Zeitschrift zur
verbalen Interaktion 22, 390-425.
- Brouwer, C. E. (2003). Word Searches in NNS-NS Interaction:
Opportunities for Language Learning? The Modern Language Journal,
87(4), 534–545.
- Dressel, D. (2020). Multimodal word searches in collaborative
storytelling: On the local mobilization and negotiation of
coparticipation. Journal of Pragmatics, 170, 37–54.
- Goodglass, H., Wingfield, A., & Wayland, S. C. (1989). The nature of
prolonged word search. Brain and Language, 36(3), 411–419.
- Goodwin, C. (1979). The Interactive Construction of a Sentence in
Natural Conversation. In G. Psathas (Ed.), Everyday Language: Studies
in Ethnomethodology (pp. 97–121). Irvington Publishers.
- Goodwin, C. (1981). Conversational Organization. Interaction between
Speakers and Hearers. Academic Press.
- Goodwin, M. H., & Goodwin, C. (1986). Gesture and coparticipation in
the activity of searching for a word. Semiotica, 62(1/2: Approaches to
Gesture), 51–75.
- Greer, T. (2013). Word search sequences in bilingual interaction:
Codeswitching and embodied orientation toward shifting participant
constellations. Journal of Pragmatics, 57, 100–117.
- Hayashi, M. (2003). Joint Utterance Construction in Japanese
Conversation. John Benjamins.
- Koshik, I., & Seo, M.-S. (2012). Word (and other) search sequences
initiated by language learners. Text & Talk, 32(2), 167.
- Lerner, G. H. (1996). On the ‘semi-permeable’ character of
grammatical units in conversation: Conditional entry into the turn
space of another speaker. In E. Ochs, E. Schegloff, & S. A. Thompson
(Eds), Interaction and Grammar (pp. 238–276). Cambridge University
Press.
- Lerner, G. H. (2013). On the place of hesitating in delicate
formulations: A turn-constructional infrastructure for collaborative
indiscretion. In M. Hayashi, G. Raymond, & J. Sidnell (Eds),
Conversational Repair and Human Understanding (pp. 95–134). Cambridge
University Press.
- Levelt, W. J. M. (1983). Monitoring and self-repair in speech.
Cognition, 14, 41–104.
- Margutti, P. (2007). ‘Come si dice....’: Ruoli discorsivi e identità
situate nella ricerca di parole. In A. Ciliberti (Ed.), La costruzione
interazionale di identità. Repertori linguistici e pratiche discorsive
degli italiani in Australia (pp. 201–245). Franco Angeli Editori.
- Merlino, S. (2010). Un’analisi multimodale della ricerca di parola
nelle sequenze di traduzione orale. In M. Pettorino, A. Giannini, & F.
M. Dovetto (Eds), La comunicazione parlata 3 (Atti del terzo congresso
internazionale del Gruppo di Studi sulla comunicazione parlata,
Napoli, 23-25 febbraio 2009) (pp. 473–492). Università degli Studi di
Napoli L’Orientale.
- Merlino, S., & Traverso, V. (2009). Les séquences de traduction
spontanée comme mécanisme de réparation dans des interactions
professionnelles. Synergies Pays Germanophones, 2, 129-143.
- Oloff, F. (2014). L’évaluation des complétions collaboratives:
Analyse séquentielle et multimodale de tours de parole co-construits.
SHS Web of Conferences, 8, 2125–2145.
- Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G., & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference
for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation.
Language, 53(2), 361–382.



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