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Emergent Syntax for Conversation: Clausal patterns and the organization of action
Edited by Yael Maschler, Simona Pekarek Doehler, Jan Lindström and Leelo Keevallik
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 32] 2020
► pp. 185–220

Chapter 7
Practices of clause-combining

From complex wenn-constructions to insubordinate (‘stand-alone’) conditionals in everyday spoken German

Traditionally, conditional wenn-clauses in German are treated as subordinate clauses, either preceding or following their matrix clauses. My data – based on naturally occurring German talk-in-interaction from various settings – show that participants in everyday interactions use various types of (pre-positioned) wenn-constructions as resources to accomplish social activities. These constructions not only blur the boundaries between subordinated and main clauses, but also reveal a wide range of in-between wenn-constructions ranging from tightly integrated to loosely integrated, from non-integrated to free-standing.

The empirically based analysis, furthermore, shows that practices of clause-combining turn out to be closely connected to the temporal unfolding of talk-in-interaction, and thus to issues of projection, retractive expansions as well as the ongoing accomplishment of social action.

Keywords: emergence, co-construction, coordination, insubordination, projection, routinization, sedimentation, stand-alone wenn-clauses, subordination, temporal unfolding
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Wenn-constructions in everyday German interactions
    • 2.1Syntactic integration of the pre-positioned wenn-clause and the following main clause
    • 2.2Syntactic (and prosodic) non-integration of the pre-positioned wenn-clause and the following main clause
      • 2.2.1Non-integrated constructions which are convertible into integrative word order
      • 2.2.2Non-integrated constructions which are not convertible into integrative word order
    • 2.3Co-constructed wenn-constructions
    • 2.4Beyond biclausal sentence patterns: Wenn-constructions comprised of longer discourse units
      • 2.4.1Incrementally expanded wenn-units, spreading over several TCUs
      • 2.4.2Wenn-clauses followed by a longer sequence of talk:
    • 2.5Stand-alone wenn-constructions
      • 2.5.1Wishes and requests
      • 2.5.2Warnings/threats:
      • 2.5.3Exclamations and expressions of stances and assessments:
  • 3.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Literature
Published online: 17 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.32.07gun
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