How grammar-for-interaction emerges over time
Evidence from second language talk
This paper argues for a broadening of the analytic scope of Interactional Linguistics (IL) to embrace systematic investigation into
how grammar grows out of social interaction longitudinally. While IL has amply documented the ways in which grammar structures interaction
and emerges locally in real time within and across turns-in-progress, evidence for how social interaction motivates
the routinization (or: sedimentation) of grammatical usage patterns over time is scarce due to
lack of diachronic interactional data. I review the few
existing diachronic and synchronic studies on the issue, and argue that the investigation of
second language (L2) interactions opens new avenues for IL research, enabling us to empirically document the over-time emergence of grammar-for-interaction. I then present an analysis of the developmental trajectory of je sais pas ‘I don’t know’
in French L2 interactions across four proficiency levels, showing that the expression
progressively routinizes as an interaction-organizational marker in ways that exhibit parallels to diachronic grammaticalization processes. This demonstrates how the study of L2
interactions can provide developmental evidence for how
grammatical patterns emerge and sediment over iterative social encounters as resources for social interaction. The
investigation of L2 data hence creates new opportunities for IL research in view of a better understanding of grammar as an outcome of peoples’ acting in the social world.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: Documenting how languages are shaped by social interaction as a challenge for Interactional
Linguistics
- 2.Research on how grammar-for-interaction emerges and changes over time
- 2.1Diachronic evidence
- 2.2Synchronic evidence
- 2.3Developmental evidence
- 3.Analysis: The routinization of je sais pas ‘I don’t know’ as an interactional marker in second
language talk-in-interaction
- 3.1Data and analytic focus
- 3.2A general picture of the developmental trajectory
- 3.3The emergence and routinization of JSP as an interactional marker
- i.Hedging
- ii.(Re)doing an ending: Exiting a turn or sequence
- iii.Projecting a disaligning response
- 3.4Summary of findings
- 4.Discussion and conclusion
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Notes
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References
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