Chapter in:
OKAY across Languages: Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interactionEdited by Emma Betz, Arnulf Deppermann, Lorenza Mondada and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 34] 2021
OKAY in closings and transitions
Lorenza Mondada | University of Basel
Marja-Leena Sorjonen | University of Helsinki
This chapter discusses OKAY in transitions and
closings, based on findings in the data from 13 languages that are
analyzed in the project on OKAY. The chapter shows that OKAY
features in a variety of languages in closing environments at
different levels of organization, where the particle might occupy
diverse positions and do similar but also complementary work across
the languages. The sequential and activity environments to be
discussed include (i) sequence closings, (ii) activity closings,
(iii) transitions between activities or topics, and iv) the closing
of an entire conversation.