The forms and functions of ‘naming interrogatives’ in Hebrew word searches

Abstract

This conversation analytic study reports on Hebrew expressions such as ˈex korim le-ze ‘how does one call it’ and ma ha-shem she-la ‘what is her name’. I term them ‘Naming Interrogatives’ (NIs), and offer an account of their forms and functions in word search environments. Most commonly, NIs are used to induce solitary word searches, in which the responsibility of solving the trouble is that of the repair initiator. However, they are also used to induce joint word searches, in which that responsibility is distributed among participants; or, to demand other repair, as tokens inducing recipient-directed word searches, laying the responsibility of repair solely on the recipient. Helping type-distinguish between these three functions are orderly patterns of action formation and turn design. Namely, the strategic deployment of morphosyntactic, lexico-semantic and prosodic resources with varying degrees of (semantic, discursive, acoustic) prominence. My analysis suggests that participants use NIs in order to saliently construct and negotiate their epistemic status and stance. It also claims that this practice reveals some of the social significance that demonstrating lexical knowledge has for participants.