Grammar and *Interaction: Syntactic Pivots in German Conversation
Betz, Emma
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/86342
Description
Title
Grammar and *Interaction: Syntactic Pivots in German Conversation
Author(s)
Betz, Emma
Issue Date
2007
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Andrea Golato
Department of Study
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Discipline
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Language, Linguistics
Language
eng
Abstract
Chapter 1 situates the phenomenon within the fields of Interactional Linguistics and CA. Chapter 2 reviews relevant aspects of spoken German and outlines different types of syntactic pivot constructions. Chapter 3 discusses the systematic use of pivots in the environment of overlap, where they serve as a resource for managing the distributions of speakership in interaction. Chapter 4 discusses pivots employed to bridge sequential/topical junctures. I show that speakers use these structures to effectively steer the direction of the current topic or manage the transition between a subsidiary activity and the main activity. In Chapter 5, I explore the role of sentence-level resources in the organization of word searches. Pivot constructions are used at different points in the organization of searches (during/at the end of/after a search) and their interactional functions differ with their placement. Chapter 6 focuses on pivots used to carry out embedded self-correction. In the pivot turns analyzed, speakers accomplish a change in the action format or a modification of the stance conveyed and thereby orient to problems in alignment in an 'embedded' way. To conclude, I address implications for the field of Linguistics, point to limitations of my study, and provide avenues of future research. This dissertation shows that spoken syntactic constructions and their functions can only be grasped if we acknowledge the temporality of spoken language and view grammar as usage-based and negotiable.
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