Reference construction in interaction: The case of type-indicative “so”

Abstract

This study examines an embodied practice in German. The practice investigated is the use of the German particle “so” in conjunction with a noun phrase and accompanied by a pointing gesture (hereafter “so”+NP+PG). Based on the methodological principles of Conversation Analysis, I demonstrate that in the construction “so”+NP+PG the particle features as a type-indicative token. Interlocutors use this practice to point at an object that is a concrete perceivable token that represents a type. Focusing on the interplay between linguistic and multimodal resources in the construction of reference, I show that “so”+NP+PG functions as a resource that interlocutors use in order to point at physically present entities, directing the addressees' attention to an actual object in the participants’ perceptual space. However, they are not making reference to that specific object. Instead, the speaker establishes a communicative focus on a recognisable entity in order to make reference to an absent entity that bears the same features as the pointed-at object. Hence, the absent entity is visualised or “seen” through an actual object in the perceptual surroundings.