Repair sequences in dysarthric conversational speech: a study in interactional phonetics

This paper presents some findings from a case study of repair sequences in conversations between a dysarthric speaker, Chris, and her interactional partners. It adopts the methodology of interactional phonetics, where turn design, sequence organization, and variation in phonetic parameters are analysed in unison. The analysis focused on the use of segmental and prosodic variation found during attempts by Chris to repair a previously identified trouble source. The results indicate that trouble sources were extremely common in the recorded conversations, but that repair attempts were almost always communicatively successful. Analysis of the fragments revealed that repair sequences are often collaborative achievements, with the participant's conversational partners signalling the specific trouble source within a turn, or providing feedback about repair attempts. It was also observed that successful repair attempts were not always simple repetitions of the trouble source, but varied in other linguistic areas. It is suggested that intelligibility repairs should be studied using both experimental and qualitative methods.