Vi snakker sådan: An analysis of the Danish discourse-pragmatic marker sådan

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Christian Schoning ◽  
Jørn Helder ◽  
Chloé Diskin-Holdaway

Abstract The last three decades have witnessed increasing interest in discourse-pragmatic markers (DPMs), both with regards to their high frequency in spoken discourse and their multifunctionality in interaction. Most studies have centered on English, with studies on Danish restricted to a handful of previous interactional discourse analyses. This paper is a preliminary investigation of the Danish word sådan (commonly glossed as ‘such’ or ‘like this/that’). A qualitative, form-based, discourse analytic approach is undertaken on over 40 minutes of naturally occurring Danish talk to argue that sådan qualifies as a DPM. In service of textual, subjective, and intersubjective macro-functions, sådan illustrates; exemplifies; marks hesitation; approximates a quantity; mitigates, hedges, or softens; and allows self-correction or self-repair. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for sådan’s place in the Danish DPM system and our understanding of DPMs across languages.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 92-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoyo Takagi

In naturally occurring everyday caregiver–child interaction, a major part of what is hearable as storytelling or an incipient form of it is talk about participants’ (mostly children’s) past experiences. Adopting a conversation-analytic approach, this study attempts to show how explicit references to children’s past actions formulated in the form of [(X) did (Y)], where X is the young child interacting with the caregiver, can engender opportunities for participants to develop telling activities. Through the detailed analysis of talk and embodied features of telling sequences in each case, the analysis will reveal how the [(X) did (Y)]-format utterance is utilized for co-constructing the telling, and what social and interactional consequences are accomplished through the telling occasioned by such reference.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Fang Wang ◽  
Mei-Chi Tsai ◽  
Wayne Schams ◽  
Chi-Ming Yang

Mandarin Chinese zhishi (similar to English ‘only’), comprised of the adverb zhi and the copula shi, can act as an adverb (ADV) or a discourse marker (DM). This study analyzes the role of zhishi in spoken discourse, based on the methodological and theoretical principles of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis. The corpus used in this study consists of three sets of data: 1) naturally-occurring daily conversations; 2) radio/TV interviews; and 3) TV panel discussions on current political affairs. As a whole, this study reveals that the notions of restrictiveness, exclusivity, and adversativity are closely associated with ADV zhishi and DM zhishi. In addition, the present data show that since zhishi is often used to express a ‘less than expected’ feeling, it can be used to indicate mirativity (i.e. language indicating that an utterance conveys the speaker’s surprise). The data also show that the distribution of zhishi as an adverb or discourse marker depends on turn taking systems and speech situations in spoken discourse. Specifically, the ADV zhishi tends to occur in radio/TV interviews and TV panel news discussions, while the DM zhishi occurs more often in casual conversations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
LYNN CLARK ◽  
KEVIN WATSON

The variable phenomenon in which /t/ can be realized as a tap or rhotic approximant in varieties of Northern British English (commonly referred to as t-to-r, Wells 1982: 370) has received some attention in English linguistics as debates have appeared over how best to model its phonology (e.g. Carr 1991; Docherty et al. 1997; Broadbent 2008). The occurrence of t-to-r seems to be constrained by the preceding and following phonological environment in a largely systematic way and so it is often accounted for within a rule-based model of grammar. Problematically, however, the rule does not apply blindly across the board to all words which fit the specified phonological pattern. Instead, t-to-r shows evidence of being lexically restricted, and this fact has recently encouraged a usage-based interpretation. Until now, there has been relatively little attempt to test the usage-based thesis directly with fully quantified data gleaned from naturally occurring conversation. This article investigates the extent to which certain usage-based predictions can account for variation attested in t-to-r in Liverpool English. Using oral history interviews with Liverpool English speakers born in the early 1900s, we examine the usage-based predictions first proposed by Broadbent (2008) that t-to-r is more likely in (a) high-frequency words and (b) high-frequency phrases. There is some support for the importance of lexical frequency as a motivating factor in the use of t-to-r, but our data do not fully support either of these claims wholesale. We suggest that t-to-r is not constrained simply by word frequency or phrase frequency alone, but by a combination of both. Finally, we explore the possibility of employing notions from Cognitive Grammar such as schema strength (e.g. Taylor 2002; Bybee 1995: 430) in our interpretation of these data.


Author(s):  
Toshiaki Furukawa

Scholars of language policy and planning (LPP) have recently started using ethnographic and discourse-analytic methods. Examining the collaborative sense-making activity of language users can shed light on how they construct their version or versions of reality by using semiotic resources, creating intertextual links, and referring to language ideologies. This study investigates an under-researched area in LPP: spoken discourse in media talk, specifically in media involved in indigenous language revitalization in Hawaiʻi. Using audio recordings of Ka Leo Hawaiʻi (The Hawaiian Voice) broadcast from the 1970s for over 25 years, the study explores the multilingual practices of the hosts, the guests, and the call-in listeners of the translingual contact zone of this Hawaiian language radio show by analyzing these participants' metapragmatic comments on the use of English and their bivalent utterances.


2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Schellpfeffer ◽  
Randall S. Kuhlmann ◽  
David L. Bolender ◽  
Carmel G. Ruffolo ◽  
Gary L. Kolesari

Pragmatics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Rosenbaun ◽  
Sheizaf Rafaeli ◽  
Dennis Kurzon

This study explores the phenomenon of multiactivity during recreational video-mediated communication (VMC) through the analysis of competing engagements. From a data corpus of naturally occurring interactions in public Google Hangouts, we focus on instances of competing engagements triggered by the co-presence of unratified participants in broadcasters’ physical environments. As users are immersed in their everyday spaces, interferences from their domestic sphere are common occurrences that break the participatory framework established in the digital sphere. Following a conversation analytic approach, we intend to show that these interferences lead to competing engagements that can be exploited rather than simply dealt with. Drawing on literature on multiactivity, we argue that participants at times organize and coordinate these multiple engagements to add playfulness and advance their interactions. In sum, this study aims to highlight how situated competing streams of action are coordinated and the purpose they may serve in recreational VMC.


1966 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 992-1002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jørgine Stene Sørensen ◽  
Nils Andreas Sørensen ◽  
Bodil Jerslev ◽  
E. Kulonen ◽  
J. Brunvoll ◽  
...  

Gesture ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Johanne S. Philipsen ◽  
Sarah Bro Trasmundi

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the intimate link between hands and minds – or rather: How the hands are a means for exploring thoughts in collaboration with others. Specifically, this study investigates a series of locally occurring instances of gestural reuse in naturally occurring psychotherapeutic interaction. The repetition of gestural sequences and formats in interaction has been researched as serving pragmatic functions of building cohesion (McNeill & Levy, 1993) and managing different aspects of turn-taking (Koschmann & LeBaron, 2002). Taking a micro-analytic approach to the study of gesture, we show how reusing other participants’ gestures in the context of psychotherapy serves additional functions: As affordances for shared, embodied cognition. The study contributes to the growing body of research on gesture as a co-participated, co-operative (Goodwin, 2013, 2018) and embodied phenomenon that criss-cross the boundaries of inside-the-skull, individual-centered and socially distributed cognition.


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