Abstract
This chapter investigates the use of the Danish particle altsa in turn-initial position. Turn-initial altsa can be employed for prefacing a wide range of actions, including self-and other-initiated repair, questions, second stories and answers to both yes/no and wh-questions. We show that across these actions, participants in interaction produce altsa to indicate (1) that the action they will produce departs from progressivity, (2) that it will expand on something prior, (3) that the departure is, therefore, justified, and (4) that it will contribute to reinstalling the progression of the larger on-going activity. Some of the actions that altsa prefaces can also be prefaced by phrases that function like 'you know' or 'I mean', which seem to do at least some of the work that altsa does, but altsa is used more frequently and across a wider range of actions. In our discussion, we raise the possibility that the usefulness of altsa is due to the fact that it allows its producer to indicate that no one party in the interaction was accountable or at fault for the departure.
| Translated title of the contribution | At forklare brud på progressiviteten: Den danske tur-initiale partikel altså |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Title of host publication | Between Turn and Sequence. : Turn-initial particles across languages |
| Editors | John Heritage, Marja-Leena Sorjonen |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Place of publication | NL |
| Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company |
| Publication date | 2018 |
| Pages | 445-476 |
| Chapter | 15 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9789027200488 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9789027264282 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Keywords
- Conversation Analysis
- Danish
- Grammar
- Progressivity
- Questioning
- Repair
- Second stories
- turn-initial particle