Abstract

This article offers an analysis of turn-expanding practices with the connectiveå sen‘and then’ in Swedish multi-party conversations in which the participants discuss and assess works of visual art. The connective is recurrently used to introduce a turn continuation, i.e. a stretch of talk that is produced after a possibly completed turn-constructional unit (TCU). We identify three types of continuations: same-speaker continuations, occurring post gap or post-other talk, and other-continuations by the next speaker. Some of the “and then” continuations are clausal, syntactically free-standing, while non-clausal continuations have more in common with TCU increments. “And then” continuations specify, restrict or redirect the unfolding contribution while at the same time orienting to a collective interactional project. In same-speaker continuations, the speaker can introduce a new aspect of the established theme or offer an account. Other-continuations can be used to achieve a shift in footing to introduce a somewhat non-aligning contribution. Both grammar and embodied resources (especially hand gestures) are activated in the management of the completion of a prior turn unit, the initiation of a turn continuation and the recompletion of the speaker’s turn. The typical multimodal trajectory is: syntactic completion of a first unit + retracted gesture; link to prior talk and upcoming talk with “and then” followed by the core of the continuation +aredeployed gesture; and finally, syntactic completion of the continuing unit + retracted gesture to a rest position.

Highlights

  • This article offers an analysis of turn-expanding practices with the connective å sen “and ” in Swedish conversation

  • This article has described how verbal and embodied turnorganizing practices were used in the construction and achievement of turn continuations prefaced with the Swedish connective å sen ‘and .’

  • “And ”-prefacing constitutes a linking resource through which participants in a multi-party conversation can introduce an elaboration of already established thematic threads or bring in new observations, descriptions or interpretations that fit in the collective interactional project

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

This article offers an analysis of turn-expanding practices with the connective å sen “and ” in Swedish conversation. Following either no uptake (Excerpt 3) or ratifications of listenership (Excerpt 4), the speakers produce a continuation prefaced with å sen ‘and ,’ where å sen initiates another multimodal sequence where talk and gestures work together to both depict and point out observables (Excerpt 3) as well as to support a line of reasoning (Excerpt 4) In both types of continuations (post-gap and post-other talk), the connective å sen serves as the linking element that enables expansion, and it is produced with the speaker still in a bodily rest position. In these “and ”prefaced turn continuations, grammar in the form of the lexical linker precedes and paves the way for other multimodal resources to contribute to meaning-making in the content-wise more central and complex turn-parts (cf. Keevallik, 2017, Keevallik, 2013)

A Comparison of L1 and L2 Uses of the Connective and Multimodal Resources
CONCLUSION
ETHICS STATEMENT
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