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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. 275–302

Chapter 10
Right-dislocated complement clauses in German talk-in-interaction

(Re-)specifying propositional referents of the demonstrative pronoun das

This contribution deals with right-dislocated complement clauses with the subordinating conjunction dass (‘that’) in German talk-in-interaction. The bi-clausal construction we analyze is as follows: The first clause, in which one argument is realized by the demonstrative pronoun das (‘this/that’), is syntactically and semantically complete; the reference of the pronoun is (re-)specified by adding a dass-complement clause after a point of possible completion (e.g., aber das hab ich nich MITbekommen. (0.32) dass es da so YOUtubevideos gab. (‘But I wasn’t aware of that. That there were videos about that on YouTube.’). The first clause always performs a backward-oriented action (e.g., an assessment) and the second clause (re-)specifies the propositional reference of the demonstrative, allowing for a (strategic) perspective shift. Based on a collection of 93 cases from everyday conversations and institutional interactions, we found that the construction is used close to the turn-beginning for referring to and (re-)specifying (parts of) another speaker’s prior turn; turn-internal uses tie together parts of a speaker’s multi-unit turn. The construction thus facilitates an incremental constitution of meaning and reference.

Keywords: right-dislocation, complementizer, German, demonstrative
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Right dislocation in German
    • 2.1General properties of the construction [[NP V das i] [dass NP VP]i]
    • 2.2Right dislocation in the literature
  • 3.Data
  • 4.Uses of the right dislocation construction
    • 4.1Co-reference with (parts of) a prior turn
    • 4.2Co-reference with prior parts of the same turn
    • 4.3Co-constructed uses: Referential self-repair and understanding-check
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.32.10pro
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