Chapter 6
Rising OKAY in third position in Danish
talk-in-interaction
Earlier investigations claim that there are two
OKAY types in Danish: okay1, with falling pitch,
occurring mainly in third position, indicating sufficient
understanding, and okay2, with rising pitch,
indicating so-far understanding and that a projected trajectory may
continue. We have examined 235 cases of OKAY used in contexts where
understanding is at issue, and it turns out that a substantial
number of okay2 tokens occur in
“okay1 environments,” that is, in third
position following answers to questions. Our analyses of these cases
reveal that in this environment, okay2 is used to
indicate (1) that the answer could or should be expanded, or (2)
that there are still unresolved matters that the answer did not deal
with in full.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background: Danish OKAY
- 3.Data and method
- 4.Analysis
- 4.1Distribution of tokens across positions
- 4.2
Okay1 as a receipt in third position
- 4.3
Okay2 as a “continuer”
- 4.4
Okay2 indicating that an answer was the
beginning of a telling
- 4.5
Okay2 dealing with other unresolved
matters
- 5.Rising OKAY tokens as a way of keeping the interaction
open
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Acknowledgements
-
Notes