Notes on overlap management in conversation: The case of delayed completion

A turn‐taking system allocates speaking turns in conversation. Nonetheless, on occasion speakers start up “out of turn.” This report examines one procedure, Delayed Completion, that speakers use to finish a discontinued turn after an intervening utterance by another speaker. Speakers employ resources intrinsic to the turn‐taking system, such as the projectability of turn unit completion, to regain turn occupancy and to locate the utterance of the out‐of‐turn speaker as having been interruptive. When the intervening utterance makes a next action relevant, Delayed Completion can also cancel the relevance of that next action.