Grammar, tails, and affect: Constructing expressive choices in discourse

Abstract

This article examines elements of language which have primarily affective and expressive effects in discourse. It is argued that such elements have been relatively ignored by linguists who have preferred to describe more cognitive, ideational, and easily systematizable phenomena. Drawing on data from a multimillion-word corpus of spoken English the main argument in this article is that expressive phenomena should not be marginalized in contexts of interpersonal spoken interaction and that possibilities for systematic description are available. The main example taken is that of 'tails' in English and a descriptive account is given in which a new discourse category of 'reciprocating' move is proposed. The account raises, however, crucial questions concerning the nature of spoken grammar, the characterization of rules in discourse sequences, and the place accorded to affect in a description of language