“May I tell you something?”: When questions do not anticipate responses

Abstract

AbstractThis conversation analytic paper reports on the interactional functions of the Greek subjunctive polar interrogative clausena (su) po (káti)?‘may I tell you something?’ in informal Greek conversation (Corpus of Spoken Greek). It is shown that the clause is a practice for securing a multi-unit turn and prefacing big packages in interaction, such as arguments and tellings. It is argued that the interrogative clause is used as a discourse marker when it occupies the initial slot of an extended turn. By employing an interactional approach to grammar, this study brings sequential context, social action and practice into the analysis of the clausena (su) po (káti)?, and sheds light on the vehicular structure of social action and the emergence of linguistic devices that project multi-unit turns.