Influence of Power on Turn-taking in Police and Suspects interactions in Anambra State: an Analytical Discourse

Abstract

The fundamentality of language to human communication cannot be over-emphasized. As a matter of fact, the use of language for the expression of one‟s feelings, ideas and thoughts is an attribute that humans do not share with any creature. However, the use of language in human communication encounters is determined by a number of factors, one of which is power. Hence, this study examined the influence of power on turn-taking in police-suspect interaction. Taking turns to talk is essential to conversation, as well as to other speech-exchange systems. In conversation, participants take turns in interaction as they interact on a moment-by-moment and turn-by-turn basis. This is to say that the next turn provides evidence of the party‟s orientation to the prior turn, there and then. Nonetheless, Police-suspect interaction is such that depicts asymmetrical distribution of power between police officers and suspects. Using descriptive method based on Conversation Analysis approach, the paper explored the relationship between power and turn-taking in Police-Suspect interaction. It further illustrated the turn constructional components of Police-Suspect interaction as well as the various Turn Cues and Transition Relevance Places in Police-Suspect interaction.