We plan to have two short data sessions.
The data come from a 20-minute student discussion video-recorded by the students as an assignment for their English class. The four participants are first-year university students. Their proficiency in English is fairly limited, but they nevertheless try to use English throughout the discussion
I am currently looking at infant/caregiver interaction. The data I have collected involves prelinguistic infants as young as a couple of weeks, who naturally react NR (cry, scream, babble, etc) while the caregiver reacts. The caregivers so far, in my initial viewings, seem to be reacting to the NR with either a Wh or Yes/No question to comfort the infant.
I am, as of now, making the claim that the infant's NR initiates a sequence. This NR-->Wh (or Yes/No) question sequence is one of many possibilities that allow the infant to be seen AS a member, that is an an agent who actively co-constructs turns.
I am also, as of now, claiming that infants' NRs allows the infant to 'do' turn-taking which allows them to enter (for lack of a better phrase) the social structure.
The research was inspired by Wittgenstein's (and to a lesser extent Vygotsky's) claim that language is grafted onto infants' NRs.
If anybody is interested in bringing their own data, analyses, observations, arguments, or whatever, to a next meeting to discuss together, please contact Aug Nishizaka at augnish(a)soc.meijigakuin.ac.jp.