In this paper, planning models developed in artificial intelligence are applied to the kind of planning that must be carried out by participants in a conversation. A planning mechanism is defined, and a short fragment of a free‐flowing videotaped conversation is described. The bulk of the paper is then devoted to an attempt to understand the conversation in terms of the planning mechanism. This
... [Show full abstract] microanalysis suggests ways in which the planning mechanism must be augmented, and reveals several important conversational phenomena that deserve further investigation.