453
Views
5
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Grammatical Flexibility as a Resource in Explicating Referents

&
Pages 156-174 | Published online: 17 May 2012
 

Abstract

This article examines one aspect of interplay between grammar and social interaction: how speakers of different languages explicate referents that had been referred to tacitly, i.e., without using an explicit referential expression. The focus is on situations when speakers go on to explicate the referent in the transition space, after bringing the turn constructional unit to a possible completion. Depending on the grammatical affordances of the language, rendering a tacit reference explicit may either expose or mask this operation. Focusing on the latter, we show that the grammars of Russian and Brazilian Portuguese (and, to a lesser extent, English) enable speakers of these languages to explicate referents by extending a possibly complete turn constructional unit with a grammatically fitted increment and, thereby, embed this remedial operation into the progressive construction of the turn without engaging repair machinery. We discuss how tacit referring and flexible word order can enable speakers to carry out this repair-like operation in a covert or embedded fashion, and we examine some interactional functions of this referent-explicating operation.

Notes

1See CitationOno and Thompson (1997) for a critical discussion of the term “zero anaphora.” “Zero reference” is a broader term, as, unlike “zero anaphora,” it does not invoke a previous mention of the referent. In some languages, initial references (to persons) may be accomplished tacitly, or with zero reference (e.g., CitationLevinson, 2007). In languages considered here—English, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian—tacit referring is mostly done in locally subsequent positions (one exception may be the first person reference “I,” which can often be elided). Depending on the researcher's theoretical orientation and analytic goals, similar phenomena may be referred to as pro, subject/object ellipsis, unexpressed, omitted or null subject/object, etc. (e.g., CitationHolmberg, 2005; CitationMcShane, 2002).

2We are adopting CitationSchegloff's (1996b, Citation2000) definition of increments as grammatically fitted extensions of the host turn constructional unit. CitationFord et al. (2002) refer to such increments as “extensions.” On the other hand, what Ford et al. call “free constituents”—another category of “increments” in their scheme—are not considered “increments” here.

3In linguistics, this is known as “obligatory transitivity”—the requirement that the direct object of the verb be overtly expressed.

4A discussion of conditions under which this may be possible is beyond the scope of this article. For linguistic accounts of object omission in Russian see, for example, CitationGordishevsky & Avrutin (2003) and CitationMcShane (2002); for Brazilian Portuguese, see CitationCyrino (2004)and CitationCyrino & Matos (2002)

5There is some theoretical debate about the status of Russian and Brazilian Portuguese as “true” pro-drop languages (e.g., CitationGordishevsky & Avrutin, 2003; CitationHolmberg, 2005). There is no question, however, that these languages allow omission of grammatical subjects in some environments. A discussion of these environments is, however, beyond the scope of this article.

6A comparison with languages like Japanese or Korean suggests that the prevalence of tacit referring is only partially due to a language's morphological richness (CitationFox, Hayashi, & Jasperson, 1996; CitationHolmberg, 2005).

7Linguists studying Russian (e.g., CitationTurk, 2000; CitationYokoyama, 1986) and Brazilian Portuguese (e.g., CitationSilva, 2001) argue that word order in these languages relates to the information structure of discourse (specifically, the distinction between “old” versus “new” information). To our knowledge, no interactional studies on word order in either Russian or Brazilian Portuguese have been conducted. A discussion of what constitutes an “underlying” word order in these languages or of the interactional functions of word order is beyond the scope of this article.

8For instance, Japanese and Korean freely allow for zero reference, but—as strictly verb-final languages—clearly mark the end of a TCU as such (with sentence-final particles). So, when referring is accomplished tacitly and a TCU is

brought to a possible completion, any explication of referents in the transition space is exposed. These “postpredicate” extensions are understood to be operating on the prior TCU, but they do so disjointedly and are marked (see CitationCouper-Kuhlen & Ono, 2007; CitationKim, 2007).

9During line 2, Lena's face can only be seen in profile on the video. From what can be seen, Lena simply holds her gaze on Mira and displays no signs of nonunderstanding (such as poking or tilting her head-cf. CitationSeo & Koshik, 2010).

10It should be noted that transition space repair on an indexical reference may result in a grammatical construction called “right dislocation” (CitationQuirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik, 1985), as in the following excerpt (line 3): Vick (CDII) 01 SHA: ‘T's freeee sh'd be'appy. 02 MIC: W[asn' h a p p y.] 03 NAN:   [He- he's there ]evry night Vick 04     (0.4) 05 MIC: Mm hm? 06     (1.2) 07 SHA:  Yeah  The relationship between transition space repair and right dislocation and what it might mean for “grammar for conversation” deserve further investigation (see, for example, CitationGeluykens, 1994).

11The problem with the initial assessment term might be that the expression é ( … ) f:::ogo” is similar to the vulgar, but more common, é foda (meaning “it's hard”). The new version (at line 9) avoids this association.

12In Russian, the verb “will live” (budut zhit) is marked for the third person plural or “they.”

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.