OKAY across Languages
Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interaction
Editors
| University of Waterloo
| Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
| University of Basel
| University of Helsinki
OKAY has been termed ‘a spectacular expression’ and ‘America’s greatest invention.’ This volume offers an in-depth empirical study of the uses that have resulted from its global spread. Focusing on actions and interactional practices, it investigates OKAY in a variety of settings in 13 languages. The collected work showcases the importance of a holistic analysis: prosodic realization and the placement of OKAY in its larger sequential and multimodal context emerge as constitutive for distinct uses in individual languages. An inductive approach makes it possible to identify practices not previously documented, for example OKAY used for ‘qualified acceptance’ or as a ‘continuer’, and to document a core of recurrent, similar uses across languages. This work also outlines new research directions for comparative analysis by offering first insights into the diachronic development of OKAY’s uses and the relationship of OKAY to other particles in specific languages.
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 34] 2021. vii, 440 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | pp. vii–viii
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Chapter 1. Introduction: OKAY emerging as a cross-linguistic object of study in prior researchEmma Betz and Marja-Leena Sorjonen | pp. 2–28
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Chapter 2. Data and methods used in the study of OKAY across languagesArnulf Deppermann and Lorenza Mondada | pp. 30–51
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Generic sequential uses of OKAY across languages
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Chapter 3. OKAY in responding and claiming understandingEmma Betz and Arnulf Deppermann | pp. 56–92
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Chapter 4. OKAY in closings and transitionsLorenza Mondada and Marja-Leena Sorjonen | pp. 94–127
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OKAY in specific languages
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Chapter 5. The prosody and phonetics of OKAY in American EnglishElizabeth Couper-Kuhlen | pp. 132–173
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Chapter 6. Rising OKAY in third position in Danish talk-in-interactionSøren Sandager Sørensen and Jakob Steensig | pp. 176–204
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Chapter 7. OKAY as a response to informings in FinnishAino Koivisto and Marja-Leena Sorjonen | pp. 206–233
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Chapter 8. When OKAY is repeated: Closing the talk so far in Korean and Japanese conversationsSatomi Kuroshima, Stephanie Hyeri Kim, Kaoru Hayano, Mary Shin Kim and Seung-Hee Lee | pp. 236–265
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OKAY in specific activities and settings
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Chapter 9. OKAY in health helpline calls in Brazil: Managing alignment and progressivityAna Cristina Ostermann and Katariina Harjunpää | pp. 270–299
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Chapter 10. A resource for action transition: OKAY and its embodied and material habitatElwys De Stefani and Lorenza Mondada | pp. 302–336
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Chapter 11. OKAY projecting embodied compliance to directivesLeelo Keevallik and Matylda Weidner | pp. 338–362
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Chapter 12. Coordination of OKAY, nods, and gaze in claiming understanding and closing topicsHenrike Helmer, Emma Betz and Arnulf Deppermann | pp. 363–393
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Transcription conventions and glossing symbols
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Appendix. Transcription conventions and glossing symbols | pp. 396–400
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Bibliography | pp. 401–432
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Name index | pp. 433–436
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Subject index | pp. 437–440
“This edited volume directs our attention to the kind of herculean steps necessary to achieve deeper and more pragmatic understandings of OKAYs-in-interaction across languages and cultures — an exemplary contribution examining ordinary moments in extraordinary ways.”
Wayne A. Beach, San Diego State University, in Journal of Pragmatics 190 (2022).
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth
2021. Language over time.
Interactional Linguistics 
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 april 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.
Subjects & Metadata
BIC Subject: CFG – Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
BISAC Subject: LAN009030 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics