Request for Confirmation Sequences across Languages

The upcoming fifth meeting of the DFG scientific network “Interactional Linguistics” will be held from September 21-23, 2022 at the University of Potsdam.

Plenary speaker:

Wednesday, 21.09.2022; Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen (Helsinki) from 10:30 to 12:00:
“Particle responses to question-elicited informings: Methodological reflections”

Abstract
My presentation will be framed around a puzzle: How to analyze a particle response to an elicited informing in an unfamiliar language? By drawing on what is known cross-linguistically about responses to informings in general and about particle responses to informings in neighboring languages in particular, I will attempt to tease out how an analyst might arrive at a plausible hypothesis about what a single case of responsive ja is doing in a Norwegian informing sequence. The implication of finding ways to resolve this puzzle is that the same discovery procedure can also be used in familiar languages. I will conclude with some methodological reflections on analyzing particle responses in informing sequences.