Based on this definition of a turn the possibility for a single speaker to take several consecutive turns, in a series, or a row, exist. As observed from the data, the number of turns taken by a single speaker ranged from one turn to as many as fifteen turns. The transcript revealed that speakers took turns not only alternately but consecutively. We ran a test to determine if turns could be reproducibly identified based on our definition of a turn. This looks like making a transcript independent of the words.
Pauses are silences in the conversation.
A pause as short as 0.3 seconds is time enough for a person to take a turn in a conversation. This turn may be taken by any party to the conversation. In-breaths are points in a conversation when one stops talking to take a breath. Sentence intonations are points in a conversation when a speaker's voice marks the end of a sentence. Question intonations are points in the conversation when a speaker's voice marks the end of a question.