Garder le silence comme ressource pour produire une réponse en réunion à distance

This article analyzes conversational silences following questions in professional remote meetings. The study is based on videorecordings of naturally occurring webconferences in a set of companies. A webconference can be defined as an audioconference system enhanced by web features allowing its users to manage the gathering, to chat, and to share screen, documents or applications. Questions generate the expectation of a response. Extensive silences following a question are recurrently treated as a lack of uptake, a response "officially absent" (Schegloff 1968). According to preference theory, no response or absence of recipient reaction are understood as dispreferred actions. I show how questions addressed to all participants are followed by extensive silence. I analyze how these silences are treated as relevant alternative responses by the questioner. Keeping silent as a response is treated as an alternative to a yes/no choral answer.