The clause as a locus of grammar and interaction

Abstract

This article draws on work at the interface of grammar and interaction to argue that the clause is a locus of interaction, in the sense that it is one of the most frequent grammatical formats which speakers orient to in projecting what actions are being done by others' utterances and in acting on these projections. Yet the way in which the clause affords grammatical projectability varies significantly from language to language. In fact, it depends on the nature of the clausal grammatical formats which are available as resources in a language: in some languages these allow early projection in the turn unit (as in English), in others they do not (as in Japanese). We focus here on these two languages and show that their variable grammatical projectability has repercussions on the way in which three interactional phenomena – next-turn onset, co-construction, and turn-unit extension – are realized in the respective speech communities. In each case the practices used are precisely the ones which the clausal grammatical formats in the given language promote. The evidence thus suggests that clauses are interactionally warranted, if variably built, formats for social action.

Turn-taking in Human Communication – Origins and Implications for Language Processing

“…The fact that all languages organize their syntax around the clause, the minimal structure expressing a speech act and proposition, is likely an adjustment to the small turn units licensed by the turn-taking system [34]. Similarly, the pressure on response speed and the slow nature of sound encoding put a high premium on information compression -the solution is to use pragmatic heuristics that inferentially enrich the message [35,36].…”

The limits of grammar: Clause combining in Finnish and Japanese conversation

“…In projecting the ends of turns, speakers do rely on morphosyntactic patterns in clausal grammar such as argument structure and verb forms. In fact, it does seem that in our data, as suggested by Thompson and Couper-Kuhlen (2005), the clause is one of the most frequent formats the speakers orient to, and that, as suggested by Helasvuo (2001) "the clause is precisely that unit which permits significant projectability" (485).…”

“…It is of course true, as one of the editors has pointed out to us, that participants combine TCUs, turns and actions, but we are here specifically concerned with the combining of clausal TCUs, while TCUs, of course, can take of a variety of syntactic shapes. For discussion of clause combinations vs. TCU combinations, see Couper-Kuhlen 2012; for a discussion of participant orientation to clauses, see Thompson & Couper-Kuhlen 2005. 564 Ritva Laury and Tsuyoshi Ono 2001;Keevallik 2003;Kärkkäinen 2003;Couper-Kuhlen & Thompson 2008;Hopper & Thompson 2008;Pekarek Doehler 2011;Kärkkäinen forthcoming). Beginnings of turns often include phrases that semantically and pragmatically project a certain type of clause, or a certain type of discourse to follow, such as a quote, a story or an account.…”

Motivações semântico-pragmáticas para a ordenação dos argumentos na construção ditransitiva

“…Nesses termos, toma o fenômeno linguístico como processo e produto da interação humana, da atividade sociocultural (THOMPSON; COUPER-KUHLEN, 2005). A língua é concebida como um sistema adaptativo complexo, uma estrutura plástica, constituída, ao mesmo tempo, de padrões mais ou menos regulares e de outros que emergem, em virtude de necessidades cognitivas e/ou comunicativas (BYBEE, 2010).…”