Adjacency Pairs
An adjacency pair is two speech turns made by different speakers consecutively, labelled first part (or just first) and second part (or just second); in an adjacency pair, the first part will require a response using a particular kind of second part (e.g. question/answer, summons/response, invitation/response). Turn taking and the occurrence of adjacency pairs are the basis of conversation (see turn taking below). Adjacency pairs suggest that speakers are following expected conversational conventions with each making sense of the previous turn (see co-operative principle). An insertion or inserted sequence is an interruption that breaks a first adjacency pair with a new series of turns (themselves forming new adjacency pairs…) before the original adjacency pair is complete.
