Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2021
Chapter 6 presents a case-study of response markers and introduces a syntactic analysis within the framework of the Interactional Spine Hypothesis. Response markers are units of language which are used to respond to previous moves. I show that the target of confirmation can differ depending on the syntactic context. Response markers show the same pattern of multi-functionality as confirmationals do, providing evidence that there is a system in place which regulates both types of units of language. I compare my analysis to previous analyses of response markers and show that none of them are adequate because they restrict their attention to response markers used as answers to polar questions. This is, however, only one use of response markers: they can also be used to express agreement, acknowledge the addressee’s belief, or simply indicate that the responder is listening. The interactional spine predicts precisely these functions. I further show that response markers can be modified prosodically to express all kinds of emotional content and I develop an analysis for this pattern.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.