Chapter published in:
Between Turn and Sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages
Edited by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 31] 2018
► pp. 251–286

Reformulating prior speaker’s turn in Finnish

Turn-initial siis, eli(kkä), and nii(n) et(tä)

| University of Helsinki
This chapter examines the Finnish particles siis, eli(kkä) and nii(n) et(tä) when they occupy the turn-initial position. The chapter focuses on the use of these particles when they preface a single type of action, a reformulation of the prior speaker’s turn or more extended stretch of talk. In contrast to reformulations without a prefacing particle, the particles are used for contextualizing the turn by displaying their speaker’s stance vis-à-vis the action being done. It will be shown that while the prefaces share a range of characteristics, most importantly making an explicit link to the prior talk and projecting a reformulation to come, each of them displays a distinctive epistemic stance (e.g. degree of certainty; basis of the reformulation). The chapter sets the turn-initial use of the particles in relation to their other types of usages and etymology.
Keywords: turn-initial particle, turn preface, reformulation of prior talk, candidate understanding, anaphoric link, stance taking, epistemic stance, Finnish, particle , particle , particle )
Published online: 19 July 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.31.09sor
References

References

Antaki, Charles
2012 “Affiliative and Disaffiliative Candidate Understandings.” Discourse Studies 14 (5): 531–547. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, Trevor
2012 “When Problems Pass Us By: Using “You Mean” to Help Locate the Source of Trouble.” Research on Language & Social Interaction 45 (1): 82–109. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013 “Signaling Trouble: On the Linguistic Design of Other-Initiation of Repair in English Conversation.” PhD thesis. University of Groningen. http://​dissertations​.ub​.rug​.nl​/faculties​/arts​/2013​/t​.m​.benjamin​/?pLanguage​=en
Bolden, Galina
2010 “’Articulating the Unsaid’ via And-prefaced Formulations of Others’ Talk.” Discourse Studies 12 (1): 5–32. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Clift, Rebecca
2001 “Meaning in Interaction: The Case of Actually ”. Language 77 (2): 245–291. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf
2015. ”Retrospection and Understanding in Interaction.” In Temporality in Interaction, ed. by Arnulf Deppermann, and Susanne Günthner, 57–94. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark, and N. J. Enfield
2015 “Other-Initiated Repair across Languages: Towards a Typology of Conversational Structures.” Open Linguistics 1: 96–118. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark, Sean G. Roberts, Julija Baranova, Joe Blythe, Paul Drew, Simeon Floyd, Rosa S. Gisladottir, Kobin H. Kendrick, Stephen C. Levinson, Elizabeth Manrique, Giovanni Rossi, and N. J. Enfield
2015 “Universal Principles in the Repair of Communication Problems.” PLoS ONE 10: e0136100. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Drake, Veronika
2015 “Indexing Uncertainty: The Case of Turn-Final Or , Research on Language and Social Interaction 48 (3): 301–318. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Drew, Paul
1997 “Open’ Class of Repair Initiators as Responses to Sequential Sources of Troubles in Conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 28: 69–101. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2003. ”Comparative Analysis of Talk-in-Interaction in Different Institutional Settings: A Sketch.” In Studies in Language and Social Interaction, ed. by Phillip Glenn, Curtis D. LeBaron, and Jenny Mandelbaum, 293–308. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Etelämäki, Marja
2009 “The Finnish Demonstrative Pronouns in Light of Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 41: 25–46. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haakana, Markku, Salla Kurhila, Niina Lilja, and Marjo Savijärvi
2016. ”Kuka, mitä, häh? Korjausaloitteet suomalaisessa arkikeskustelussa [Other-initiation of repair in Finnish everyday conversation].” Virittäjä 2/2016:255–292.Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
2015 “Insisting on ‘My Side’: Siis-Prefaced Utterances in Finnish.” Journal of Pragmatics 75: 111–130. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, Maria Vilkuna, Riitta Korhonen, Vesa Koivisto, Tarja Riitta Heinonen, and Irja Alho
2004 Iso suomen kielioppi [The Comprehensive Grammar of Finnish]. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Lauri
1999 [1951] Luennot suomen kielen partikkeleista [Lectures on Particles in Finnish Language]. ed. by Yrjö Lauranto, and Tapani Lehtinen. Helsinki: Department of Finnish language, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto, and Kaoru Hayano
2013 “Proffering Insertable Elements: A Study of Other-Initiated Repair in Japanese.” In Conversational Repair and Human Understanding, ed. by Makoto Hayashi, Geoffrey Raymond, and Jack Sidnell, 293–321. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heritage, John
1984 “A Change of State Token and Aspects of Its Sequential Placement.” In Structures of Social Action, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson, and John Heritage, 299–345. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1985 “Analyzing News Interviews: Aspects of the Production of Talk for an “Overhearing” Audience.”. In Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Vol.3, Discourse and Dialogue, ed. by Teun van Dijk, 95–117. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
2012a “Epistemics in Action: Action Formation and Territories of Knowledge”. Research on Language and Social Interaction 45: 1–29. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012b “The Epistemic Engine: Sequence Organization and Territories of Knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45: 30–52. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John, and Rod Watson
1979 “Formulations as Conversational Objects.” In Everyday Language, ed. by George Psathas, 123–162. New York: Irvington Press.Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail
1984 “Notes on Some Orderliness of Overlap Onset.” In Discourse Analysis and Natural Rhetoric, ed. by V. DʹUrso, and P. Leonardi, 11–38. Padua, Italy: Cleup Editore.Google Scholar
Juvonen, Päivi
2005 “On the Pragmatics of Indefinite Determiners in Spoken Finnish.” In Minimal Reference. The Use of Pronouns in Finnish and Estonian Discourse, ed. by Ritva Laury, 190–211. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar
Kitzinger, Celia
2013. ”Repair.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell, and Tanya Stivers, 229–256. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Koivisto, Aino
2013 “On the Preference for Remembering: Acknowledging an Answer with Finnish ai nii(n) (“oh thatʹs right”).” Research on Language and Social Interaction, 46 (3): 277–297. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2015 “Dealing with Ambiguities in Informings: Finnish aijaa as a “Neutral” News Receipt.” Research on Language and Social Interaction, 48 (4): 365–387. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2016 “Receipting Information as Newsworthy vs. Responding to Redirection: Finnish News Particles aijaa and aha(a) ”. Journal of Pragmatics 104: 163–179.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2017 “On-line Emergence of Alternative Questions in Finnish with the Conjunction/Particle Vai ‘or’.” In Linking Clauses and Actions in Social Interaction, ed. by Ritva Laury, Marja Etelämäki, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 129–148. Helsinki: Finnish LiteratureSociety.Google Scholar
Koivisto, Aino, Ritva Laury, and Eeva-Leena Seppänen
2011 “Syntactic and Actional Characteristics of Finnish että-Clauses.” In Subordination in Conversation: A Crosslinguistic Perspective, ed. by Ritva Laury, and Ryoko Suzuki, 69–102. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Koivisto, Aino, and Liisa Voutilainen
2016 “Responding to What Is Left Implicit: Psychotherapists’ Formulations and Understanding Checks After Clients’ Turn-Final Että (“That/So”).” Research on Language and Social Interaction 49 (3): 238–257.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
KS = Kielitoimiston sanakirja
[New Dictionary of Modern Finnish] 2017 Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten keskus.Google Scholar
Kunnari, Miia
2011 Kahdentunut dialogipartikkeli joojoo keskustelussa [Reduplicated dialogue particle joojoo in conversation]. MA thesis in Finnish language. University of Helsinki. https://​helda​.helsinki​.fi​/handle​/10138​/37879
Kurhila, Salla
2006 Second Language Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kushida, Shuya
2011 “Confirming Understanding and Acknowledging Assistance: Managing Trouble Responsibility in Response to Understanding Check in Japanese Talk-in-interaction”. Journal of Pragmatics 43: 2716–2739. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Laury, Ritva, and Eeva-Leena Seppänen
2008 “Clause Combining, Interaction, Evidentiality, Participation Structure, and the Conjunction-Particle Continuum: The Finnish Että .” In Crosslinguistic Studies of Clause Combining, ed. by Ritva Laury, 153–178. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Laury, Ritva, Karita Suomalainen, and Anna Vatanen
2017 “The Finnish Projector Phrase Se että in Claims of Intersubjective Sharing.” A paper presented in Conference Intersubjectivity in Action, Helsinki May 11–13 2017.
Lindström, Anna
1997 Designing Social Actions: Grammar, Prosody, and Interaction in Swedish Conversation. Doctoral dissertation. Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Luke, K. K.
1990 Utterance Particles in Cantonese Conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
NS =  Nykysuomen sanakirja [Dictionary of Moderna Finnish] 1992 [1951–1961] 13th edition. Porvoo: Werner Söderström.Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor
1988 Culture and Language Development. Language Acquisition and Language Socialization in a Samoan Village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey
1992 Lectures on Conversation. Volumes I and II. ed. by Gail Jefferson. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A.
2011 “Word Repeats as Unit Ends.” Discourse Studies 13 (3): 367–380. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., Gail Jefferson, and Harvey Sacks
1977 “The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation.” Language 53 (2): 361–382. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
SMS =   Suomen murteiden sanakirja 1997 [Dictionary of Finnish Dialects]. Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus.Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena
2001 Responding in Conversation. A Study of Response Particles in Finnish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena, and Heidi Vepsäläinen
2016 “The Finnish Particle No .” In NU/NÅ: A Family of Discourse Markers across the Languages of Europe and Beyond, ed. by Yael Maschler, and Peter Auer. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
SSA = Suomen sanojen alkuperä 1995 [ The origin of Finnish words. Etymological dictionary ]. Volumes 1–3 . Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland and Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar
Vepsäläinen, Heidi
In preparation. No-partikkeli kysymys-vastaus-sekvensseissä [The particle no in question-answer sequences]. PhD thesis in Finnish language. University of Helsinki.
Vilkuna, Maria
1992 Referenssi ja määräisyys suomenkielisten tekstien tulkinnassa [Reference and definiteness in interpretation of texts in Finnish]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Google Scholar
Weiste, Elina, and Anssi Peräkylä
2013 “A Comparative Conversation Analytic Study of Formulations in Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Psychotherapy.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 46 (4): 299–321. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by other publications

No author info given
2021.  In OKAY across Languages [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 34], Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 01 january 2021. 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.