Clift2001

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Clift2001
BibType ARTICLE
Key Clift2001
Author(s) Rebecca Clift
Title Meaning in interaction: The case of "actually"
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Meaning, Actually
Publisher
Year 2001
Language
City
Month
Journal Language
Volume 77
Number 2
Pages 245-291
URL Link
DOI
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

One aspect of the relationship between meaning and interaction is explored here by taking the English particle actually, which is characterized by flexibility of syntactic position, and investigating its use in a range of interactional contexts. Syntactic alternatives in the form of clause-initial or clause-final placement are found to be selected by reference to interactional exigencies. The temporally situated, contingent accomplishment of utterances in turns and their component turn-constructional units shows the emergence of meaning across a conversational sequence; it reveals syntactic flexibility as both a resource to be exploited for interactional ends and a constraint on that interaction.

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