Chapter published in:
OKAY across Languages: Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interaction
Edited by Emma Betz, Arnulf Deppermann, Lorenza Mondada and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 34] 2021
► pp. 94–127

OKAY in closings and transitions

| University of Basel
| 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.
Keywords: closing, pre-closing, transition, second position, third position, completion
Published online: 17 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34.04mon