Language over time: Some old and new uses of OKAY in American English

Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth

doi:10.1075/il.20008.cou

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

Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen | 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

References (35)

References

Beach, W. A. (1993). Transitional regularities for ‘casual’ “Okay” usages. Journal of Pragmatics, 191, 325–352.

(2020). Using prosodically marked “Okays” to display epistemic stances and incongruous actions. Journal of Pragmatics, 1691, 151–164.

Betz, E., A. Deppermann, L. Mondada, & M.-L. Sorjonen, Eds. (In press). OKAY across languages: Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Clayman, S. and J. Heritage. (2002). The News Interview: Journalists and Public Figures on the Air. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Couper-Kuhlen, E. (2009). A sequential approach to affect: The case of ‘disappointment’. In M. Haakana, M. Laakso and J. Lindström (Eds.), Talk in Interaction. Comparative dimensions (pp. 94–123). Helsinki, Finnish Literature Society.

(2014). What does grammar tell us about action? Pragmatics, 24(3), 623–647.

(In press-a). The prosody and phonetics of OKAY in American English. In E. Betz, A. Deppermann, L. Mondada & M.-L. Sorjonen (Eds.), OKAY across languages: Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

(In press-b). OH+OKAY in informing sequences: On fuzzy boundaries in a particle combination. Open Linguistics. Special issue “Weak cesuras: What fuzzy boundaries can accomplish in talk-in-interaction”, D. Barth-Weingarten & R. Ogden (Eds.).

Couper-Kuhlen, E. & D. Barth-Weingarten. (2011). A system for transcribing talk-in-interaction: GAT 2. English translation and adaptation of Selting, M. et al.: Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2. Gesprächsforschung Online, 121, 1–51.

Couper-Kuhlen, E. & M. Selting (Eds.) (2001). Studies in Interactional Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Drew, P. (2012). What drives sequences? Research on Language and Social Interaction, 45(1), 61–68.

Gardner, R. (2007). The ‘Right ‘connections: Acknowledging epistemic progression in talk. Language in Society, 361, 319–341.

Guthrie, A. M. (1997). On the systematic deployment of OKAY and MMHMM in academic advising sessions. Pragmatics, 71, 397–415.

Heritage, J. (1984). A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action. Studies in Conversation Analysis (pp. 299–345). Cambridge England: Cambridge University Press.

(2011). Territories of knowledge, territories of experience: Empathic moments in interaction. In T. Stivers, L. Mondada & J. Steensig (Eds.), The morality of knowledge in conversation (pp. 159–183). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

(2012a). Epistemics in action: Action formation and territories of knowledge. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 45(1), 1–29.

(2012b). The epistemic engine: Sequence organization and territories of knowledge. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 45(1), 30–52.

Koivisto, A. (2015). Displaying now-understanding: The Finnish change-of-state token ‘aa’. Discourse Processes, 52(2), 111–148.

Lerner, G. H., Ed. (2004). Conversation Analysis: Studies from the first generation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Maynard, D. (1997). The news delivery sequence: Bad news and good news in conversational interaction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 301, 93-130.

Metcalf, A. (2010). OK: The improbable story of America’s greatest word. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ochs, E., E. A. Schegloff, & S. A. Thompson (Eds.) (1996). Interaction and grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pekarek Doehler, S., J. Wagner, & E. González-Martinez (Eds.) (2018). Longitudinal studies on the organization of social interaction. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Robinson, J. D. (2009). Managing counterinformings: An interactional practice for soliciting information that facilitates reconciliation of speakers’ incompatible positions. Human Communication Research, 351, 561–587.

Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation, Volumes I & II. Oxford, UK/Cambridge, USA: Blackwell.

Sacks, H., E. Schegloff, & G. Jefferson. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 501, 696–735.

Schegloff, E. (1982). Discourse as an interactional achievement: Some uses of “uh huh” and other things that come between sentences. In: D. Tannen, Ed., Analyzing discourse: Text and talk (pp. 71–93). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

(1988). Presequences and indirection: Applying Speech Act Theory to ordinary conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 121, 55–62.

Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis, Vol. 11. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schegloff, E. A. & H. Sacks. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica, 71, 289–327.

Selting, M., P. Auer, D. Barth-Weingarten, et al. (2009). Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2. Gesprächsforschung Online, 101: 353–402.

Stevanovic, M. & A. Peräkylä. (2012). Deontic authority in interaction. The right to announce, propose, and decide. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 45(3), 297–321.

Stivers, T. (2018). How we manage social relationships through answers to questions: The case of interjections. Discourse Processes, 56(3), 191–209.

Terasaki, A. K. (2004). Pre-announcement sequences in conversation. In: G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation Analysis: Studies from the first generation (pp. 171–223). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Thompson, S. A., B. Fox, & E. Couper-Kuhlen. (2015). Grammar in everyday talk: Building responsive actions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cited by (17)

Cited by 17 other publications

Order by:

Bangerter, Adrian, Dominique Knutsen, Elisabeth Germanier, Gilles Col & Julie Brosy

2024. Okay as a marker for coordinating transitions in joint actions: Effects of participant role and age in Swiss German and Swiss French interviews. Journal of Pragmatics 230 ► pp. 166 ff.

Garre-León, Víctor

2024. Sequence organization in L2 interactions. Applied Pragmatics 6:1 ► pp. 31 ff.

Gubina, Alexandra, Barbara A. Fox & Chase Wesley Raymond

2024. What to do next. In New Perspectives in Interactional Linguistic Research [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 36], ► pp. 20 ff.

Keevallik, Leelo & Marri Amon

2024. Seeing is believing. Interactional Linguistics 4:1 ► pp. 38 ff.

Pekarek Doehler, Simona

2024. How grammar-for-interaction emerges over time. In New Perspectives in Interactional Linguistic Research [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 36], ► pp. 334 ff.

Schirm, Sam

2024. From doing work on your own talk to doing work on others’ talk. Interactional Linguistics 4:1 ► pp. 68 ff.

Selting, Margret & Dagmar Barth-Weingarten

2024. Introducing new perspectives in interactional linguistic research. In New Perspectives in Interactional Linguistic Research [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 36], ► pp. 1 ff.

Yu, Guodong, Yaxin Wu, Paul Drew & Chase Wesley Raymond

2024. The DIG Mandarin Conversations (DMC) Corpus. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 15:1 ► pp. 105 ff.

Almossa, Amereh Ibrahim

2023. The Emergence of Tab in Najdi Arabic. Languages 8:4 ► pp. 245 ff.

Bolden, Galina B., Alexa Hepburn & Jenny Mandelbaum

2023. The distinctive uses of right in British and American English interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 205 ► pp. 78 ff.

Polak-Yitzhaki, Hilla & Yael Maschler

2023. From lack of understanding to heightened engagement: A multimodal study of Hebrew ′ATA LO MEVIN ‘You don’t understand’. Intercultural Pragmatics 20:5 ► pp. 521 ff.

Reber, Elisabeth

2023. On the ritualization of commemorative practices: Paying tribute in British Prime Minister's Questions. Journal of Pragmatics 214 ► pp. 92 ff.

Voutilainen, Liisa & Anssi Peräkylä

2023. Anticipation and Delivery of a Personality Disorder Diagnosis in Psychiatry. Research on Language and Social Interaction 56:1 ► pp. 22 ff.

HALL, JOAN KELLY

2022. L2 Classroom Input and L2 Positionally Sensitive Grammars: The Role of Information‐Seeking Question Sequences. The Modern Language Journal 106:S1 ► pp. 113 ff.

Malabarba, Taiane, Anna C. Oliveira Mendes & Joseane de Souza

2022. Multimodal Resolution of Overlapping Talk in Video-Mediated L2 Instruction. Languages 7:2 ► pp. 154 ff.

Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth

2021. OH + OKAY in informing sequences: On fuzzy boundaries in a particle combination. Open Linguistics 7:1 ► pp. 816 ff.

Deppermann, Arnulf & Simona Pekarek Doehler

2021. Longitudinal Conversation Analysis - Introduction to the Special Issue. Research on Language and Social Interaction 54:2 ► pp. 127 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.