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Resolving knowledge discrepancies in informing sequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2018

Lucas M. Seuren ,
Mike Huiskes  and
Tom Koole
Lucas M. Seuren*
Affiliation:
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Mike Huiskes
Affiliation:
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Tom Koole
Affiliation:
University of Groningen, The Netherlands & University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
*
Address for correspondence: Lucas M. Seuren, P.O. Box 716 9700 AS, Groningen, The Netherlandsl.m.seuren@rug.nl
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Abstract

This article investigates a specific practice that recipients in Dutch talk-in-interaction use when responding to turns that have as one of their main jobs to inform. By responding to an informing turn with an oh-prefaced nonrepeating response that has yes/no-type interrogative word order, recipients treat that turn as counter to expectation and request both confirmation of the inference formulated in his/her response, as well as reconciliatory information for the two discrepant states of affairs. This practice is compared to similar cases where the nonrepeating response is not oh-prefaced to show that such turns implement different actions. Data are in Dutch with English translations. (Counterexpectations, change-of-state, yes/no-type interrogatives, action formation, practions)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , June 2018 , pp. 409 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented during a workshop at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics; we are grateful to the participants for their feedback. We would also like to thank four anonymous reviewers and the editors of this journal for their invaluable comments.

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