English Zero Anaphora as an Interactional Resource

Abstract

This study investigates English speakers' practices of employing zero anaphora (or omission of an overt reference term) in ordinary conversations, with special reference to the kind of interactional work that they accomplish by the practice. The findings demonstrate that unlike previously held assumptions, zero anaphora may be systematically deployed by English speakers to achieve certain interactional functions, for example, marking the current talk as a second or resaying or displaying the secondary level of the action being done by the current talk. This article thus establishes zero anaphora, which has been frequently treated as an accident, or disorderly product of a casual way of speaking, as a serious resource in the construction of conversational interaction by English speakers.