Marking the unexpected: The case of ba in Greek talk-in-interaction

Abstract

This article examines the Greek particle ba in naturally occurring talk, adopting a conversation analytic perspective. The analysis reveals that it is systematically involved in two different types of social action, depending on prosodic variation and sequential position. Overall, ba appears as either a repair initiator expressing surprise, or a negative token in polar answers and disagreements. It is shown that these seemingly different uses are united by an indexical anchor of unexpectedness that is realized differently prosodically and adopts an either backward- or forward-looking orientation. The article gives further insight into how one's knowledge is related to one's expectations, thus contributing to a better understanding of the epistemics of (un)expectedness. It also enriches growing cross-linguistic literature on epistemic particles from a Greek perspective. Data are drawn from 40 recorded ordinary conversations included in the Corpus of Spoken Greek and 8 focus groups conducted in Greece.