Subversive Completions: Turn-Taking Resources for Commandeering the Recipient’s Action in Progress

This article explores the practice of “subversive completions,” whereby one speaker produces a grammatically fitted completion of another speaker’s unfolding turn so as to subvert the action of the unfolding turn and the ongoing sequence. We show that subversive completions may derail or exaggerate the action in progress, typically for comedic or teasing effect. We also introduce three related turn-taking practices that can be used to accomplish subversion and discuss the implications of these practices for our understanding of intersubjectivity. Data are in American English, British English, and Russian.