Abstract:This study focusses on the Finnish utterance type that consists of voi olla '(it) may be' and a span of talk initiated by et(tä) 'that', that follows it. The analysis demonstrates that in an initiating turn, the utterance initiated by the voi olla että '(it) may be that' expresses a lack of knowledge of a state of affairs and usually provides for an expansion on the topic. By contrast, in a responding turn, the displayed lack of knowledge is often related to producing a hedged affirmative answer. Moreover, the… Show more
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