Betz Emma Betz – författare

OKAY has been termed ‘a spectacular expression’ and ‘America’s greatest invention.’ This volume offers an in-depth empirical study of the uses that have resulted from its global spread. Focusing on actions and interactional practices, it investigates OKAY in a variety of settings in 13 languages. The collected work showcases the importance of a holistic analysis: prosodic realization and the placement of OKAY in its larger sequential and multimodal context emerge as constitutive for distinct uses in individual languages. An inductive approach makes it possible to identify practices not previously documented, for example OKAY used for ‘qualified acceptance’ or as a ‘continuer’, and to document a core of recurrent, similar uses across languages. This work also outlines new research directions for comparative analysis by offering first insights into the diachronic development of OKAY’s uses and the relationship of OKAY to other particles in specific languages.

Requesting, recruitment, and other ways of mobilizing others to act have garnered much interest in Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics. This volume takes a holistic perspective on the practices that we use to get others to act either with us, or for us. It argues for a more explicit focus on 'activity' in unpacking the linguistic and embodied choices we make in designing mobilizing moves. Drawing on studies from a variety of different languages and settings, the collected studies in this volume illustrate how interactants design their turns not only for specific recipients, but also for a specific interactional situation. In doing so, speakers are able to mobilize others' cooperation, contribution, or assistance in the most appropriate and economical ways. By focusing on 'situation design' across languages and settings, this volume provides new insights into the ways in which the ongoing activity, with its attendant participation structures, shapes the design, placement, and understanding of moves which mobilize others to act.