In this paper lists are understood as complex pre-patterned structures. List constructions are composed of a number of elements which are embedded in a prefatory and a terminal utterance (cf. Jefferson 1990, Selting 2004). This complex pre-patterned structure may additionally contain smaller pre-patterned elements. On the basis of a corpus of authentic dyadic doctor-patient interviews I investigate the form and the functions in patients" use of list constructions while talking about fear and anxiety. The analysis is based on a broad concept of pre-patterned structures (cf. Gülich 2007), the method is a linguistic microanalysis that draws on ethnomethodological conversation analysis. In conclusion, I will discuss list structures with respect to different concepts of prefabricated linguistic and communicative units.
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