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Building Categories in Interaction: Linguistic resources at work
Edited by Caterina Mauri, Ilaria Fiorentini and Eugenio Goria
[Studies in Language Companion Series 220] 2021
► pp. 239–270

Chapter 9
Exemplification in interaction

From reformulation to the creation of common ground

| University of Bologna
| University of Cagliari

The aim of this paper is to examine how exemplification is used in real-time interactions to make reference to conceptual categories. Based on real occurrences of spoken Italian, it is shown that in conversations exemplification is used cooperatively by different participants to perform several functions. Not only can exemplification be used to present or expand the reference to a category by both speaker and addressee, but it can also contribute to the creation of a mutually accepted common ground (examples can be employed to communicate that alignment has been reached or to communicate how such alignment could be reached). Finally, we argue that examples are part of a bigger picture of cooperative reference construction, where speakers collaborate reformulating the reference using different types of strategies.

Keywords: exemplification, collaborative model, reference, categorization, discourse analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Exemplification in interaction and the creation of reference: Some theoretical premises
    • 2.1The issue of making reference to conceptual categories
    • 2.2The collaborative model of referring
    • 2.3Exemplification in the creation of reference
  • 3.Methodological remarks: Corpora, objects of analysis and parameters
  • 4.Exemplification by the speaker: Presenting and refashioning the reference
  • 5.Exemplification by the addressee: From collaborating to reference construction to interpersonal functions
    • 5.1Exemplifying to collaborate in the reference construction
    • 5.2Exemplifying to provide feedback on the reference
    • 5.3Exemplifying to ask for feedback on the reference
  • 6.Concluding remarks: Exemplification and the online creation of reference
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.220.09bar
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Mauri, Caterina
2021. Chapter 2. Ad hoc categorization in linguistic interaction. In Building Categories in Interaction [Studies in Language Companion Series, 220], ► pp. 9 ff. DOI logo

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