Chapter published 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
► pp. 206–233
OKAY as a response to informings in Finnish
Aino Koivisto | University of Helsinki
Marja-Leena Sorjonen | University of Helsinki
This chapter examines the use of the particle
OKAY in Finnish as a response to turns that are designed to provide
new information. The study focuses on the ways in which the speakers
of OKAY orient toward the epistemic character of the informing, and
on its sufficiency for the purposes of the ongoing interaction.
These aspects are analyzed by paying attention to the sequential and
activity context of the particle, its phonetic-prosodic design, and
the possible subsequent talk in the turn. OKAY is also compared with
some other Finnish response particles in similar sequential and
activity contexts. The data come from telephone and face-to-face
interactions between family and friends spanning a period from the
late 1980s to the present.
Keywords: change over time, change-of-state, comparison of response particles, doubt, Finnish, instrumental information, newsworthiness, prosody, sufficient information, understanding
Published online: 17 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34.07koi
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34.07koi
