Grammar and Interaction
Pivots in German conversation
Kansas State University
This monograph provides a micro-analytic description of the structure and communicative use of syntactic pivot constructions in German. Using the methodology of Conversation Analysis, this work shows that pivots emerge in interaction in response to local communicative needs.
Exclusively found in spoken German, pivots allow a speaker to extend an utterance beyond a possible completion point in a syntactically and prosodically unobtrusive way. Speakers utilize this basic property to promote context-specific actions: managing boundaries of speakership, bridging sequential and topical junctures, and dealing with different types of interactional trouble.
Through a close examination of syntactic pivots as an interactional resource, this work shows that spoken linguistic structures can only be fully understood if we acknowledge the temporality of language and view grammar as usage-based and negotiable. This book thus contributes to a growing body of research at the intersection of grammar and interaction.
[Studies in Discourse and Grammar, 21]
2008.
xiii, 208 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Hardbound – Available
ISBN
9789027226310
|
EUR
105.00
|
USD
158.00
e-Book – Sold by e-book platforms
ISBN
9789027289933
|
EUR
105.00
|
USD
158.00
Table of Contents
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List of tables and figures
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xi
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Acknowledgements
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xiii
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Chapter 1. Introduction
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1–11
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Chapter 2. Preliminaries
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13–38
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Chapter 3. Pivot constructions as a syntactic resource for turn-taking: Managing overlap
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39–68
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Chapter 4. Pivots at sequential and topic boundaries: Steering the emerging direction of the talk
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69–96
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Chapter 5. Pivot constructions as a resource for managing repair: Searching for a word
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97–135
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Chapter 6. Pivot constructions in embedded self-correction: Changes in action and epistemic stance
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137–168
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Chapter 7. Concluding discussion
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169–182
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Appendix A. Transcription conventions
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183–184
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Appendix B. Abbreviations for grammatical descriptions
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185
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References
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187–204
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Name index
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205–206
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Subject index
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207–208
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Quotes
“Insgesamt ist das Buch ein sehr lesenswerter Beitrag zur Erforschung von Grammatik und Interaktion des Deutschen. Methodologisch klar an den Prinzipien der Konversationsanalyse orientiert, ist das Verständnis der Analysen durch zahlreiche einführende Elemente und Literaturverweise in den einzelnen Kapiteln auch für mit diesem Rahmen weniger vertraute Leser gesichert. Die übersichtliche Einführung in die Syntax des Deutschen sowie die zahlreichen Hinweise auf aktuelle Arbeiten zum gesprochenen Deutsch machen dieses Buch zu einer empfehlenswerten einführenden Lektüre für alle, die deutschsprachige Interaktionen analysieren.”
Florence Oloff, ICAR-ENS LSH, France, in Gesprächsforschung, Ausgabe 10 (2009)
“This will be a very useful book to those interested in CA and thoughtful linguistic research.”
Iris F. Levitis, in Language 2010
“[...] the book is a highly readable contribution to the study of grammar and interaction in German [...]. Additionally and importantly, as betz points out in her closing chapter, this study provides clear evidence of the orderliness of spoken language, and of the divergence between the grammar of spoken language, exemplified by German, where pivot constructions are a coherent unit, and its written counterpart, where a construction like the pivot construction is impossible.”
Fay Wouk, University of Auckland, in Discourse Studies, Vol. 13(1), 2011
Subjects
Benjamins Subject classification
Linguistics
BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2008033088