OKAY across Languages

Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interaction

Editors

Emma Betz | University of Waterloo

Arnulf Deppermann | Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache

Lorenza Mondada | University of Basel

Marja-Leena Sorjonen | University of Helsinki

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027208156 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027260284 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

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

https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements | pp. vii–viii

Chapter 1. Introduction: OKAY emerging as a cross-linguistic object of study in prior research

Emma Betz and Marja-Leena Sorjonen | pp. 2–28

Chapter 2. Data and methods used in the study of OKAY across languages

Arnulf Deppermann and Lorenza Mondada | pp. 30–51

Generic sequential uses of OKAY across languages

Chapter 3. OKAY in responding and claiming understanding

Emma Betz and Arnulf Deppermann | pp. 56–92

Chapter 4. OKAY in closings and transitions

Lorenza Mondada and Marja-Leena Sorjonen | pp. 94–127

OKAY in specific languages

Chapter 5. The prosody and phonetics of OKAY in American English

Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen | pp. 132–173

Chapter 6. Rising OKAY in third position in Danish talk-in-interaction

Søren Sandager Sørensen and Jakob Steensig | pp. 176–204

Chapter 7. OKAY as a response to informings in Finnish

Aino Koivisto and Marja-Leena Sorjonen | pp. 206–233

Chapter 8. When OKAY is repeated: Closing the talk so far in Korean and Japanese conversations

Satomi Kuroshima, Stephanie Hyeri Kim, Kaoru Hayano, Mary Shin Kim and Seung-Hee Lee | pp. 236–265

OKAY in specific activities and settings

Chapter 9. OKAY in health helpline calls in Brazil: Managing alignment and progressivity

Ana Cristina Ostermann and Katariina Harjunpää | pp. 270–299

Chapter 10. A resource for action transition: OKAY and its embodied and material habitat

Elwys De Stefani and Lorenza Mondada | pp. 302–336

Chapter 11. OKAY projecting embodied compliance to directives

Leelo Keevallik and Matylda Weidner | pp. 338–362

Chapter 12. Coordination of OKAY, nods, and gaze in claiming understanding and closing topics

Henrike Helmer, Emma Betz and Arnulf Deppermann | pp. 363–393

Transcription conventions and glossing symbols

Appendix. Transcription conventions and glossing symbols | pp. 396–400

Bibliography | pp. 401–432

Name index | pp. 433–436

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).

“The volume under review is a most welcome contribution to the study of interaction. It includes meticulous and substantial analyses of the use of one particular linguistic item across several languages, and employs solid methodology within a unified theoretical frame; it will be most appreciated by people who already have some experience with the analysis of similar phenomena. In addition, the book is an excellent example of academic cooperation, evidenced not only in the multiple authorships of the individual chapters and the participation of all authors in the empirical grounding of the cross-linguistic chapters, but also in the extensive cross-referencing among the studies. [...] The four editors have put together an exciting volume that sets new standards for future work, not only on OKAY but also on other particles. The work may well serve as a model for holistic analyses of interaction.”

Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in Pragmatics and Society 13:4 (2022)

Cited by

Cited by 9 other publications

Order by:

Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth

2021. Language over time. Interactional Linguistics 1:1 ► pp. 33 ff.

Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth

2021. OH + OKAY in informing sequences: On fuzzy boundaries in a particle combination. Open Linguistics 7:1 ► pp. 816 ff.

Dingemanse, Mark

2024. Interjections at the Heart of Language. Annual Review of Linguistics 10:1 ► pp. 257 ff.

Fele, Giolo

2023. When There Is a Language Issue. In Emergency Communication, ► pp. 117 ff.

Henricson, Sofie, Anne Mäntynen, Marie Nelson & Marjo Savijärvi

2023. OKAY as a content word: Regulating language and constructing centres of norms in Finnish, Finland-Swedish, and Sweden-Swedish academic writing consultation meetings. Nordic Journal of Linguistics ► pp. 1 ff.

Heritage, John

2022. The Multiple Accountabilities of Action. In Action Ascription in Interaction, ► pp. 297 ff.

Hilmisdóttir, Helga, Martina Huhtamäki & Susanna Karlsson

2023. Pragmatic borrowing from English. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 46:3 ► pp. 255 ff.

Thompson, Teresa L. & Wayne A. Beach

2023. Chapter 1. Methodological insights for the study of communication in health. In A Pragmatic Agenda for Healthcare [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 338], ► pp. 16 ff.

Weidner, Matylda

2023. Chapter 4. Responses to polar questions in Polish. In Responding to Polar Questions across Languages and Contexts [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 35], ► pp. 109 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 april 2024. 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.

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