Responding in Conversation: A Study of Response Particles in Finnish (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series)

Annotation This book concerns particles that are used as responses in conversations. It provides much needed methodological tools for analyzing the use of response particles in languages, while its particular focus is Finnish. The book focuses on two Finnish particles, nii(n) and joo, which in some of their central usages have yeah and yes as their closest English counterparts. The two particles are discussed in a number of sequential and activity contexts, including their use as answers to yes-no questions and directives, as responses to a stance-taking by the prior speaker, and in the midst of an extended telling by the co-participant. It will be shown how there is a fine-grained division of labor between the particles, having to do with the epistemic and affective character of the talk and the continuation vs. closure-relevance of the activity. The book connects the interactional usages of the particles with what is known about their historical origins, and in this fashion it is also of interest to linguists doing research on processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization P&B NS 70 Responding in Conversation 2 Editorial page 3 Title page 4 LCC data 5 Table of contents 6 Acknowledgements 10 Chapter 1: Introduction 12 Chapter 2: Background information of the particles joo and niin 20 Chapter 3: Indexicality,interjections and actions by recipients in interaction 24 Chapter 4: Responses to yes/no questions 44 Chapter 5: Responses to directives 104 Chapter 6: Responses to affiliation-relevant utterances in A-event environments 142 Chapter 7: Responses to affiliation-relevant utterances concerning a mutually known issue 178 Chapter 8: Responses to informings and some other usages 220 Chapter 9: Concluding discussion 290 Appendix A 302 Appendix B 308 Notes 310 References 316 Name index 332 Subject index 336 the PRAGMATICS AND BEYOND NEW SERIES 342 Marja-leena Sorjonen. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [305]-319) And Indexes.