Cover not available
Part of
Responding to Polar Questions across Languages and Contexts
Edited by Galina B. Bolden, John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 35] 2023
► pp. 1–39

Chapter 1
Introduction

Polar questions and their responses

 | Rutgers University
 | University of California Los Angeles
 | University of Helsinki
Question–answer sequences are arguably among the most basic building blocks for sequences of action in interaction and are ubiquitous among the languages of the world. This chapter reviews and synthesizes current interactional research on polar questions and answers across languages in order to contextualize the work assembled in this volume. We introduce grammatical and pragmatic resources for forming and recognizing polar questions, discuss principles of polar question design, and overview different types of polar responses. We conclude the chapter with a preview of the included studies, a discussion of their contributions, and suggestions for future research directions.
Keywords: affirming, confirming, epistemic stance, epistemic gradient, polar answers, polar questions, preference, question-answer sequences, question design, repetitional response, response design, response particle
Article outline
  • 1.What is a polar question?
  • 2.The use of polar and content questions in conversation
  • 3.Grammatical resources for forming polar questions across languages
  • 4.Epistemic asymmetry as a basis for recognizing polar questions
  • 5.Principles of polar question design
    • 5.1Polar questions convey epistemic stances
      • 5.1.1What is the likely state of affairs
      • 5.1.2Epistemic (un)certainty
    • 5.2Polar questions convey preferences
    • 5.3Polar questions as vehicles for other actions
  • 6.Response design
    • 6.1Particle responses
    • 6.2Repetitional responses
    • 6.3Beyond particles and repetitions
  • 7.Overview of the volume
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.35.01bol
References (147)
References
Alvanoudi, Angeliki. 2022. “Polar answers and epistemic stance in Greek conversation.” Pragmatics 32 (1): 1–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Betz, Emma, and Arnulf Deppermann. 2018. “Indexing priority of position: Eben as response particle in German.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 51 (2): 171–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolden, Galina B. 2008. “Reopening Russian conversations: The discourse particle -to and the negotiation of interpersonal accountability in closings.” Human Communication Research 34: 99–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009a. “Beyond answering: Repeat-prefaced responses in conversation.” Communication Monographs 76 (2): 121–143. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009b. “Implementing delayed actions.” In Conversation Analysis: Comparative perspectives, ed. by Jack Sidnell, In Studies in interactional sociolinguistics, 326–354. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016. “A simple da?: Affirming responses to polar questions in Russian conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 100: 40–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017. “Requests for here-and-now actions in Russian conversation.” In Imperative turns at talk: The design of directives in action, ed. by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and Liisa Raevaara, 175–211. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018. “Nu-prefaced responses in Russian conversation.” In Between turn and sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages, ed. by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 23–58. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolden, Galina B., Alexa Hepburn, and Jenny Mandelbaum. 2023. “The distinctive uses of right in British and American English interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 205: 78–91. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight L. 1946. “Thoughts on ‘Yep’ and ’Nope.” American Speech 21 (2): 90–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1978. “Yes-no questions are not alternative questions.” In Questions, ed. by Henry Hiz. Dordrecht: Reidel. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, Penelope. 1998. “Conversational Structure and Language Acquisition: The Role of Repetition in Tzeltal.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 8 (2): 197–221. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “Questions and their responses in Tzeltal.” Journal of Pragmatics 42: 2627–2648. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, Penelope, Mark A. Sicoli, and Olivier Le Guen. 2021. “Cross-speaker repetition and epistemic stance in Tzeltal, Yucatec, and Zapotec conversations.” Journal of Pragmatics 183: 256–272. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clayman, Steven E. 2002. “Sequence and solidarity.” In Advances in group processes: Group cohesion, trust, and solidarity, ed. by Edward J. Lawler and Shane R. Thye, 229–253. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010. “Address terms in the service of other actions: The case of news interview talk.” Discourse & Communication 4 (2): 161–183. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013. “Agency in response: The role of prefatory address terms.” Journal of Pragmatics 57: 290–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 2012. “Some truths and untruths about prosody in English question and answer sequences.” In Questions: Formal, functional and interactional perspectives, ed. by J. P. De Ruiter, 123–145. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Margret Selting. 2018. Interactional Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Curl, Traci S., and Paul Drew. 2008. “Contingency and action: A comparison of two forms of requesting.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (2): 129–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Judy. 1984. “Subsequent versions of invitations, offers, requests, and proposals dealing with potential or actual rejection.” In Structures of Social Action, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage, 102–128. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
De Ruiter, J. P. (ed.) 2012. Questions: Formal, functional and interactional perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf. 2013. “Turn-design at turn-beginnings: Multimodal resources to deal with tasks of turn-construction in German.” Journal of Pragmatics 46 (1): 91–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf, Lorenza Mondada, and Simona Pekarek Doehler. 2021. “Early responses: An introduction.” Discourse Processes 58 (4): 293–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf, and Axel Schmidt. 2021. “Micro-sequential coordination in early responses.” Discourse Processes 58 (4): 372–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drake, Veronika. 2015. “Indexing uncertainty: The case of turn-final or.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 48 (3): 301–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. 2013a. “Polar questions.” In World atlas structures, ed. by Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. [URL]
2013b. “Position of polar question particles.” In World atlas structures, ed. by Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. [URL]
Enfield, Nick J. 2010. “Questions and responses in Lao.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2649–2665. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Enfield, Nick J., Tanya Stivers, Penelope Brown, Christina Englert, Katarina Harjunpää, Makoto Hayashi, Trine Heinemann, Certie Hoymann, Tiina Keisanen, Mirka Rauniomaa, Chase Wesley Raymond, Federico Rossano, Kyun-Eun Yoon, Inge Zwitserlood, and Stephen C. Levinson. 2019. “Polar answers.” Journal of Linguistics 55 (2): 277–304. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Enfield, Nick J., Tanya Stivers, and Stephen C. Levinson. 2010. “Question-response sequences in conversation across ten languages: An introduction.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2615–2619. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Englert, Christina. 2010. “Questions and responses in Dutch conversations.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2666–2684. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Farkas, Donka F., and Kim B. Bruce. 2010. “On reacting to assertions and polar questions.” Journal of Semantics 27: 81–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Farkas, Donka F., and Floris Roelofsen. 2019. “Polarity particles revisited.” Semantics and Pragmatics 12 (15): 1–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Floyd, Simeon, Elisabeth Norcliffe, and Lila San Roque (eds.). 2018. Egophoricity. Typological studies in language (TSL). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Freed, Alice F., and Carol M. Ehrlich (eds.). 2010. ”Why do you ask?”: The functions of questions in institutional discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Geluykens, Ronald. 1988. “The myth of rising intonation in polar questions.” Journal of Pragmatics 12 (4): 467–485. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giannakidou, Anastasia. 2011. “Negative and positive polarity items: Variation, licensing, and compositionality.” In Semantics: An international handbook of natural language meaning, ed. by C. Maienborn, K von Heusinger and P. Portner, 1660–1712. Berlin: Mouton.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1979. “Footing.” Semiotica 25 (1–2): 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Golato, Andrea, and Zsuzsanna Fagyal. 2008. “Comparing single and double sayings of the German response token ja and the role of prosody: A conversation analytic perspective.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (3): 241–270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haakana, Markku, and Salla Kurhila. 2009. “Other-correction in everyday conversation: Some comparative aspects.” In Talk in Interaction: Comparative Dimensions, ed. by Minna Laakso Markku Haakana and Jan Lindström, 152–179. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society (SKS). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haakana, Markku, and Laura Visapää. 2014. “Eiku – korjauksen partikkeli? [Eiku – the particle of repair?” Virittäjä 1: 41–71.Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli. 2001. “Minimal and non-minimal answers to yes-no questions.” Pragmatics 11 (1): 1–15.Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, Leelo Keevallik Eriksson, and Jan Lindström. 2003. “Kuule, kule, hördu: Projicerande praktiker i finska, estniska och svenska [Kuule, kule, hördu: Projecting practices in Finnish, Estonian and Swedish].” In Grammatik och Samtal: Studier till minne av Mats Eriksson, ed. by Bengt Nordberg, Leelo Eriksson Keevallik, Kerstin Thelander and Mats Thelander, 199–218. Uppsala universitet.Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, and Eeva-Leena Seppänen. 1992. “Finnish kato: From verb to particle.” Journal of Pragmatics 18 (6): 527–549. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hamdani, Fakry, and Scott Barnes. 2018. “Polar questions in colloquial Indonesian: A pilot study.” Journal of Pragmatics 132: 1–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hayano, Kaoru. 2013. “Territories of knowledge in Japanese conversation.” PhD PhD dissertation, Radboud Universiteit.
Hayashi, Makoto. 2010. “An overview of the question–response system in Japanese.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2685–2702. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto, and Kaoru Hayano. 2018. “A-prefaced responses to inquiry in Japanese.” In Between turn and sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages, ed. by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 193–223. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heinemann, Trine. 2005. “Where grammar and interaction meet: the preference for matched polarity in responsive turns in Danish.” In Syntax and Lexis in Conversation: Studies on the Use of Linguistic Resources in Talk-in-Interaction, ed. by Auli Hakilinen and Margret Selting, 375–402. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2006. “’Will you or can’t you?’: Displaying entitlement in interrogative requests.” Journal of Pragmatics 38 (7): 1081–1104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “The question–response system of Danish.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2703–2725. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John. 1984. Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. New York: Polity Press.Google Scholar
. 1988. “Explanations as accounts: A conversation analytic perspective.” In Analyzing everyday explanation: A casebook of methods, ed. by Charles Antaki, 127–144. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
. 2010. “Questioning in medicine.” In ”Why do you ask?”: The functions of questions in institutional discourse, ed. by Alice F. Freed and Carol M. Ehrlich, 42–68. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2012a. “The epistemic engine: Sequence organization and territories of knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (1): 30–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012b. “Epistemics in action: Action formation and territories of knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (1): 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015. “Well-prefaced turns in English conversation: A conversation analytic perspective.” Journal of Pragmatics 88: 88–104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. “Turn-initial particles in English: The cases of oh and well.” In Between Turn and Sequence: Turn-Initial Particles Across Languages, ed. by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 149–184. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John, and Steven Clayman. 2010. Talk in action: Interactions, identities, and institutions. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John, and Chase Wesley Raymond. 2021. “Preference and polarity: Epistemic stance in question design.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 54 (1): 39–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John, and Geoffrey Raymond. 2005. “The terms of agreement: Indexing epistemic authority and subordination in talk-in-interaction.” Social Psychology Quarterly 68: 15–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. “Navigating epistemic landscapes: Acquiescence, agency and resistance in responses to polar questions.” In Questions: Formal, functional and interactional perspectives, ed. by J. P. De Ruiter, 179–192. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John, and Marja-Leena Sorjonen. 1994. “Constituting and maintaining activities across sequences: and-prefacing as a feature of question design.” Language in Society 23 (1): 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(eds.). 2018. Between turn and sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmberg, Anders. 2015. The syntax of yes and no. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Houtkoop-Steenstra, Hanneke. 1987. Establishing agreement: An analysis of proposal-acceptance sequences. Dordrecht, Holland: Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoymann, Gertie. 2010. “Questions and responses in ╪Ākhoe Hai||om.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2726–2740. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jones, Bob Morris. 1999. The Welsh answering system. New York: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kamio, Akio. 1997. Territory of information. Pragmatics & Beyond New Series. 48. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keevallik, Leelo. 2010. “Minimal answers to yes/no questions in the service of sequence organization.” Discourse Studies 12 (3): 283–309. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kendrick, Kobin H., and Francisco Torreira. 2014. “The timing and construction of preference: A quantitative study.” Discourse Processes 52 (4): 255–289. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, Stephanie Hyeri. 2018. “Two types of trouble with questions: A comparative perspective on turn-initial particles in Korean.” In Between turn and sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages, ed. by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 97–118. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
König, Ekkehard, and Peter Siemund. 2007. “Speech act distinctions in grammar.” In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, ed. by Timothy Shopen, 276–324. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. “The transformation of experience in narrative syntax.” In Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English Vernacular, ed. by William Labov, 354–396. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William, and David Fanshel. 1977. Therapeutic discourse: Psychotherapy as conversation. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Laury, Ritva. 2018. “The Finnish verb repeat response: Its emergence and its nature as a formulaic expression.” Journal of Pragmatics 123: 139–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, Seung-Hee. 2015. “Two forms of affirmative responses to polar questions.” Discourse Processes 52 (1): 21–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2017. “Extended responding: Interaction and collaboration in the production and implementation of responses.” In Enabling Human Conduct: Studies of talk-in-interaction in honor of Emanuel A. Schegloff, ed. by Gene H. Lerner Geoffrey Raymond and John Heritage, 105–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Gene H. 1996. “Finding “face” in the preference structures of talk-in-interaction.” Social Psychology Quarterly 59 (4): 303–321. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 2010. “Questions and responses in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2741–2755. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012. “Interrogative intimations: On a possible social economics of interrogatives.” In Questions: Formal, functional and interactional perspectives, ed. by J. P. De Ruiter, 11 – 32. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lindström, Anna. 1997. “Designing social actions: Grammar, prosody, and interaction in Swedish conversation.” PhD Dissertation, University of California.
. 2005. “Language as social action: A study of how senior citizens request assistance with practical tasks in the Swedish home help service.” In Syntax and lexis in conversation, ed. by Auli Hakulinen and Margret Selting, 209–230. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2017. “Accepting remote proposals.” In Enabling human conduct: Naturalistic studies of talk-in-interaction in honor of Emanuel A. Schegloff ed. by Geoffrey Raymond, Gene H. Lerner and John Heritage, 125–142. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mazeland, Harrie, and Leendert Plug. 2010. “Doing confirmation with ja/nee hoor: Sequential and prosodic characteristics of a Dutch discourse particle.” In Prosody in Interaction, ed. by Elisabeth Reber Dagmar Barth-Weingarten and Margret Selting, 161–188. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mushin, Ilana. 2018. “Diverging from ‘business as usual’: Turn-initial ngala in Garrwa conversation.” In Between Turn and Sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages, ed. by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 119–154. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ogden, Richard, and Sara Routarinne. 2005. “The communicative functions of final rises in Finnish intonation.” Phonetica 62 (2–4): 160–175. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Persson, Rasmus. 2020. “Taking isue with a question while answering it: Prefatory particles and multiple sayings of polar response tokens in French.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 53 (3): 380–403. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1980. “Telling my side: “limited access” as a “fishing” device.” Sociological Inquiry 50 (3–4): 186–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1984. “Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes.” In Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage, 57–101. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
. 1988. “Offering a candidate answer: An information seeking strategy.” Communication Monographs 55: 360–373. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2017. “Inferring the purpose of a prior query and responding accordingly.” In Enabling Human Conduct: Studies of talk-in-interaction in honor of Emanuel A. Schegloff, ed. by Gene H. Lerner Geoffrey Raymond and John Heritage, 61–76. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pope, Emily Norwood. 1976. Questions and answers in English. Edited by Jerrold J. Katz. Janua linguarum: Series practica 226. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. 1985. A Comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Raevaara, Liisa. 1993. “Kysyminen toimintana. Kysymys-vastaus-vieruspareista arkikeskustelussa [Asking as an action. Question-answer-adjacent pairs in everyday conversation].” Lisensiaatintyö, Helsingin yliopiston suomen kielen laitos.Google Scholar
. 2001. “Kysymisestä ja vastaamisesta institutionaalisena toimintana [On asking questions and answering as an institutional activity].” In Keskustelunanalyysin näkymiä, ed. by Mia Halonen and Sara Routarinne, 47–69.Google Scholar
Raymond, Chase Wesley. 2015. “Questions and responses in Spanish monolingual and Spanish–English bilingual conversation.” Language & Communication 42: 50–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. “Bueno-, pues-, and bueno-pues-prefacing in Spanish conversation.” In Between turn and sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages, ed. by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 59–96. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raymond, Chase Wesley, and John Heritage. 2021. “Probability and valence: Two preferences in the design of polar questions and their management.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 54 (1): 60–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raymond, Chase Wesley, Jeffrey D. Robinson, Barbara A. Fox, Sandra A. Thompson, and Kristella Montiegel. 2021. “Modulating action through minimization: Syntax in the service of offering and requesting.” Language in Society 50 (1): 53–91. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raymond, Geoffrey. 2003. “Grammar and social organization: Yes/No type interrogatives and the structure of responding.” American Sociological Review 68: 939–967. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010a. “Grammar and social relations: Alternative forms of yes/no type initiating actions in health visitor interactions.” In Why do you ask?: The function of questions in institutional discourse, ed. by Alice F. Freed and Susan Ehrlich, 69–107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2010b. “Prosodic variation in responses: The case of type-conforming responses to yes/no interrogatives.” In Prosody in interaction, ed. by Dagmar Barth-Weingarten, Elisabeth Reber and Margret Selting. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2013. “At the intersection of turn and sequence organization: On the relevance of “slots” in type-conforming responses to polar interrogatives.” In Units of talk – Units of action, ed. by Beatrice Szczepek and Geoffrey Raymond, 169–206. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Felicia, Piera Margutti, and Shoji Takano. 2011. “Judgments concerning the valence of inter-turn silence across speakers of American English, Italian, and Japanese.” Discourse Processes 48 (5): 331–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey D. 2020a. “One type of polar, information-seeking question and its stance of probability: Implications for the preference for agreement.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 53 (4): 425–442. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020b. “Revisiting preference organization in context: A qualitative and quantitative examination of responses to information seeking.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 53 (2): 197–222. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roelofsen, Floris, and Donka F. Farkas. 2015. “Polarity particle responses as a window onto the interpretation of questions and assertions.” Language 91: 359 – 414. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rossano, Federico. 2010. “Questioning and responding in Italian.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2756–2711. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rossi, Giovanni. in press. Systems of social action: The case of requesting in Italian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rossi, Giovanni, Mark Dingemanse, Simeon Floyd, Julija Baranova, Joe Blythe, Kobin H. Kendrick, Jörg Zinken, and N. J. Enfield. 2023. “Shared cross-cultural principles underlie human prosocial behavior at the smallest scale.” Scientific Reports 13 (1): 6057. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1987. “On the preferences for agreement and contiguity in sequences in conversation.” In Talk and social organization, ed. by Graham Button and John R E. Lee, In Intercommunication, 54–69. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson. 1974. “A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation.” Language 50: 696–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sadock, Jerrold M., and Arnold M. Zwicky. 1985. “Speech act distinction in syntax.” In Language typology and syntactic description: Clause structure, ed. by Timothy Shopen, 155–196. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sandman, Erika. 2016. “A grammar of Wutun.” Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Arts, Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki. [URL]
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1996a. “Confirming allusions: toward an empirical account of action.” American Journal of Sociology 104 (1): 161–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996b. “Turn organization: one intersection of grammar and interaction.” In Interaction and grammar, ed. by Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff and Sandra A. Thompson, In Studies in interactional sociolinguistics, 52–133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007. Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., Gail Jefferson, and Harvey Sacks. 1977. “The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation.” Language 53: 361–382. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Searle, John R. 1969. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, Jack. 2007. “‘Look’-prefaced turns in first and second position: Launching, interceding and redirecting action.” Discourse Studies 9 (3): 387–408. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, Jack, and Tanya Stivers (eds.). 2013. The handbook of Conversation Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sinclair, John McHardy, and Malcolm Coulthard. 1975. Towards an Analysis of Discourse: The English Used by Teachers and Pupils. First Edition. London: Oxford Univ Pr.Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena. 1996. “On repeats and responses in Finnish Conversations.” In Interaction and grammar, ed. by Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff and Sandra A. Thompson, In Studies in interactional sociolinguistics, 277–327. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2001a. Responding in conversation: A study of response particles in Finnish. Vol. 70 Pragmatics & beyond. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2001b. “Simple answers to polar questions: The case of Finnish.” In Studies in interactional linguistics, ed. by Margret Selting and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, In Studies in discourse and grammar, 405–431. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. “Questions and answers.” In On their structural and interactional relationships across languages, ed. by Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou, In Studies in Spoken Discourse, 11–32. Thessaloniki: Institute of Modern Greek Studies Aristotle University Thessaloniki.Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, and Liisa Raevaara (eds.). 2017. Imperative turns at talk: The design of directives in action. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Steensig, Jakob, and Paul Drew. 2008. “Introduction: Questioning and affiliation/ disaffiliation in interaction.” Discourse Studies 10 (1): 5–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Steensig, Jakob, and Trine Heinemann. 2013. “When ‘yes’ is not enough – as an answer to a yes/no question.” In Units of talk – Units of action, ed. by Beatrice Szczepek and Geoffrey Raymond, 207–242. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stefani, Elwys De. 2021. “Embodied Responses to Questions-in-Progress: Silent Nods as Affirmative Answers.” Discourse Processes 58 (4): 353–371. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya. 2004. “”No no no” and other types of multiple sayings in social interaction.” Human Communication Research 30 (2): 260–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “An overview of the question-response system in Americal English conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2772–2781. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2019. “How we manage social relationships through answers to questions: The case of interjections.” Discourse Processes 2 (4): 191–209. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2022. The book of answers: Alignment, autonomy, and affiliation in social interaction. Foundations of Human Interaction. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, and Nick J. Enfield. 2010. “A coding scheme for question-response sequences in conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2620–2626. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, Nick J. Enfield, Penelope Brown, Christina Englert, Makoto Hayashi, Trine Heinemann, Certie Hoymann, Federico Rossano, Jan Peter De Ruiter, Kyun-Eun Yoon, and Stephen C. Levinson. 2009. “Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation.” PNAS 106 (26): 10587–10592. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, and Makoto Hayashi. 2010. “Transformative answers: One way to resist a question’s constraints.” Language in Society 39 (1): 1–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walker, Traci. 2014. “Form ≠ function: The independence of prosody and action.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 47 (1): 1–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walker, Traci, Paul Drew and John Local 2011. “Responding Indirectly.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (9): 2434–2451. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weber, Elizabeth G. 1993. Varieties of questions in English conversation. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weidner, Matylda. 2018. “Treating something as self-evident: No-prefaced turns in Polish.” In Between Turn and Sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages, ed. by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 225–250. John Benjamins Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yoon, Kyung-Eun. 2010. “Questions and responses in Korean conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 2782–2798. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zinken, Jörg. 2016. Requesting responsibility: The morality of grammar in Polish and English family interaction. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zinken, Jörg, and Eva Ogiermann. 2013. “Responsibility and action: Invariants and diversity in requests for objects in British English and Polish interaction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 46 (3): 256–276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar