Article published in:
Interactional Linguistics
Vol. 1:1 (2021) ► pp. 33–63

Language over time

Some old and new uses of OKAY in American English

| University of Helsinki
This paper demonstrates how the tools of Interactional Linguistics can be applied to the study of change in language use. It examines the particle OKAY as used in everyday American English interaction at two different points in time, the 1960s and the 1990s/early 2000s. The focus is on the remarkable increase of OKAY as a response in epistemically driven sequences. Three uses of epistemic OKAY are identified in the newer data, one of which is unattested in the older data: OKAY in response to information that has no implications for the recipient’s agenda or expressed beliefs. This novel use of OKAY appears in the newer data where OH would have occurred earlier, although OH is still attested with displays of affect such as surprise and empathy. The study concludes by arguing for an examination of ‘possibility spaces’, the set of options for filling a given sequential slot in conversational structure, at different points in time as a means for identifying changes in language use.
Keywords: OKAY, epistemics, response, informing, correction, longitudinal
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The present study: Conception and development
    • 1.2Uses of OKAY in the older and newer data
      • 1.2.1OKAY in the older data
        • OKAY in the second position of a deontic sequence
        • OKAY in the third position of a deontic sequence
        • OKAY as a marker of transition to a new topic or activity
        • OKAY in pre-closings
        • OKAY in the second position of an epistemic sequence
        • OKAY in the third position of an epistemic sequence
        • OKAY as a tag
      • 1.2.2OKAY in the newer data
        • OKAY as a continuer
  • 2.The rise of epistemic OKAY
    • 2.1Epistemic sequences in the older data
    • 2.2Epistemic OKAY in the newer data
      • 2.2.1Consequential OKAY
      • 2.2.2Revised-understanding OKAY
      • 2.2.3Non-consequential OKAY
    • 2.3Factors contributing to the rise of epistemic OKAY
  • 3.Discussion
    • 3.1Consequential and corrective informings in the older data
    • 3.2OH as a news receipt in the newer data
    • 3.3Possibility spaces in informing and counter-informing sequences
  • 4.Conclusion: Interactional Linguistics and language over time
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References


This article is available free of charge.

Published online: 16 April 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/il.20008.cou
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Language over time