This paper is about conversation, or how people talk, and the unit of analysis used to understand the organization of conversation, the turn. The reason for writing this paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to systematically model and quantify conversation. The author's vision is that the ideas presented here will enable a computer to participate in conversational interactions, so naturally, that an outside observer will not be able to distinguish the computer from the human participants. To teach a computer how to talk naturally, requires understanding how humans talk naturally. That's why the concept of the turn is so important.
Turns are the key to modeling how conversation works, how conversation is organized.
It is my observation, that each individual has a unique pattern of turn-taking that identifies them in the same way a fingerprint does. Once the language fingerprint is quantified and modeled, a computer can be programmed to simulate that communication style. The mode of analysis presented here is unique. It is based on close observation and careful analysis of the way people take turns while talking to one another. Introduction Turn-taking is the fundamental organization of social interaction.