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In request for confirmation (RfC) sequences, interlocutors negotiate their social positions regarding access and rights to knowledge. The article presents an overview of a quantitative analysis of 200 RfCs and their responses in German conversations to highlight the relevant linguistic resources speakers of the language deployed to position themselves vis-à-vis a confirmable proposition. In German RfCs, modal particles and tags play an important role in expressing the requester’s epistemic stance; explicit inference marking is used less frequently. Responses usually include response tokens (among others doch as a token specialized for disconfirming negatively formatted RfCs) and an expansion. The article shows that such expansions do important work to tailor the response to the situated informational needs of the requester in a cooperative way beyond the constraints of type-conformity.

Research on spoken languages has shown that response particles may indicate the truth of a previous utterance or the polarity of the response. In responses to negative antecedents, the two functions come apart and particles become ambiguous. We present the first quantitative study on response strategies in sign languages by discussing data from a production experiment in German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache; DGS). The results indicate that DGS does not exploit the potential of simultaneous manual and nonmanual strategies to disambiguate responses. Still, the type of articulator influences the choice of response element. We propose an optimality-theoretic model to account for the role of articulator type, the disambiguation potential, and the morphosyn- tax of response elements in DGS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we compare practices of formulating responses to requests for confirmation oriented toward confirmation but doing less or more than that in German and Yurakaré (isolate, Bolivia). The German particle joa is identified as a versatile resource for navigating the functional spectrum of such responses, being deployed for less than confirming in terms of epistemic or propositional downgrading, and for more than confirming in terms of addressing terms of questions or a confirmable's valence. When exercising these specific tasks, speakers of Yurakaré, in contrast, rely mostly on repetitional strategies, while a highly specialised particle constitutes an 'escape strategy' when a repeat would convey unwanted implications. We propose that doing less and more than confirming is contingent on a more fundamental distinction: a preference for particles (German) vs. repeats (Yurakaré) in the realm of plain confirmation, which carries over to responses doing less and more than confirming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents initial findings from the first systematic investigation of /2mm/, a disyllabic bilabial-nasal response particle pronounced with the specific high-low-high wave form of the East Norwegian ‘second tonal accent’. Estimated frequencies from three extensive corpora indicate /2mm/ as by far the most common bilabial-nasal particle in Norwegian, vastly outnumbering monosyllabic /m/ and disyllabic /mhm/ known from general (English based) literature. In spite of this, /2mm/ has remained largely underexamined, and is often not distinguished from /m/ or /mhm/ in neither transcription nor analysis of interactional work. I here consider alternatives for their distinct representation, and preliminarily analyze a collection of 420 cases in Norwegian, clustered around continuer work and agreement/acknowledgement, where they appear to do discrete social actions.

The use of the Norwegian intonation pattern Polarity Focus highlights the polarity of a contextually given thought and enables the speaker to signal whether she believes it to be a true or false description of some state of affairs. In this study, we investigate whether preschool children can produce this intonation pattern and what their productions reveal about the development of their early pragmatic abilities. We also explore their use of Polarity Focus in combination with two particles encoded by the linguistic form jo: a sentence-initial response particle, and a sentence-internal pragmatic particle. We used a semi-structured elicitation task consisting of four test conditions of increasing complexity to shed light on the developmental trajectory of the mastery of Polarity Focus. Our results show that already from the age of 2 children are proficient users of this intonation pattern, which occurs in three out of four conditions for this age group. As expected, only 4- and 5-year-olds produced Polarity Focus in the most complex test condition that required the attribution of a false belief. We further found production of sentence-initial response particle jo by all age groups, both in combination with Polarity Focus and alone. Production of the sentence-internal pragmatic particle jo, felicitously co-occurring with Polarity Focus, emerges around age 3. This study presents the first experimental evidence of Norwegian children’s mastery of intonation as a communicative device in language production and their use of the two jo particles. We show how intonational production can be used as a window into children’s early pragmatic competence: The mastery of the production of Polarity Focus can be seen as an early linguistic manifestation of the cognitive abilities for the attribution of thoughts and epistemic vigilance towards propositional content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores distinct usages of the response particle right in American versus British English conversation. The analysis shows that, in American English, right conveys the speaker's knowing stance and, in certain environments, the speaker's claim of primary knowledge. In contrast, in British English, right registers provided information as previously unknown, informative, and relevant to the current speaker's ongoing project. The analysis draws on large corpora of audio- and video-recorded ordinary and institutional interactions in British and American English. We use the methodology of Conversation Analysis to examine sequential environments in which right is used, its interactional import, and prosodic realizations. • The response particle right is used differently in US versus UK English interaction. • In US English, right coneys a knowing stance and sometimes epistemic authority. • In UK English, right registers information as previously unknown but informative. • Implications of these findings are discussed. • The study employs Conversation Analysis to examine diverse data corpora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of the Norwegian intonation pattern Polarity Focus highlights the polarity of a contextually given thought and enables the speaker to signal whether she believes it to be a true or false description of some state of affairs. In this study, we investigate whether preschool children can produce this intonation pattern and what their productions reveal about the development of their early pragmatic abilities. We also explore their use of Polarity Focus in combination with two particles encoded by the linguistic form jo: a sentence-initial response particle, and a sentence-internal pragmatic particle. We used a semi-structured elicitation task consisting of four test conditions of increasing complexity to shed light on the developmental trajectory of the mastery of Polarity Focus. Our results show that already from the age of 2 children are proficient users of this intonation pattern, which occurs in three out of four conditions for this age group. As expected, only 4- and 5-year-olds produced Polarity Focus in the most complex test condition that required the attribution of a false belief. We further found production of sentence-initial response particle jo by all age groups, both in combination with Polarity Focus and alone. Production of the sentence-internal pragmatic particle jo, felicitously co-occurring with Polarity Focus, emerges around age 3. This study presents the first experimental evidence of Norwegian children’s mastery of intonation as a communicative device in language production and their use of the two jo particles. We show how intonational production can be used as a window into children’s early pragmatic competence: The mastery of the production of Polarity Focus can be seen as an early linguistic manifestation of the cognitive abilities for the attribution of thoughts and epistemic vigilance towards propositional content.

Response particles, like English ‘yes’ and ‘no’, are used to respond to polar questions or assertions and are found in all languages. However, the number of particles and the specific meanings they convey vary across languages. For example, in some languages particles mainly convey whether the response itself is positive or negative, while in others they convey whether the response is agreeing or disagreeing with previous discourse. Further, some languages have two response particles, while others have three, or even four. Recent work suggests that how meanings tend to be mapped to forms cross-linguistically might nevertheless be constrained. Roelofsen & Farkas (2015) suggest that indicating disagreement with a negative question or assertion (e.g., A: ‘Ally doesn’t eat meat.’ B: ‘Yes, he does.’) is more marked than indicating agreement with a positive assertion (e.g., A: ‘Ally eats meat.’ B: ‘Yes, he does’.). This difference in semantic markedness is argued to lead to a difference in form: more marked meanings are mapped to more specialized forms. Here we investigate this hypothesis in a series of behavioral experiments. Across our experiments, we find that participants are indeed sensitive to the differences in meaning that particles can convey. However, not all of the differences implicated by the hierarchy hypothesized in Roelofsen & Farkas (2015) are supported by our results, and we find evidence highlighting an unexpected special role for Positive Agreement—the least marked meaning.

The interpretation of isolated response particles (méi(yǒu)/bù) in Mandarin Chinese, when used as fragment answers to negative polar questions, has traditionally been considered as conveying Double Negation. The present study shows that these response particles may express a Single Negation meaning in addition to a Rejection interpretation when specific contextual settings are considered. It is also shown that both Single Negation and Rejection readings are associated with specific prosodic and gestural cues at the time of production. In perception, gestural properties of silent videos are preferably interpreted as conveying Single Negation. In production and interpretation this study supports the conclusion that a Rejection meaning for méiyǒu/bù corresponds to a marked reading, and that Single Negation is produced and interpreted more readily and faster than Rejection. Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese rely on multimodal mechanisms (prosodic and gestural strategies) at the time of expressing both Single Negation and Rejection meanings by means of isolated response particles. We discuss the implications of this study beyond Mandarin Chinese. • Isolated response particles (méi(yǒu)/bù) may be associated with Single Negation. • Both SN and Rejection readings are activated by prosodic and gestural cues. • Rejection meaning for méiyǒu/bù corresponds to a marked reading. • SN is produced and interpreted more readily and faster than Rejection. • Mandarin Chinese speakers rely on multimodal mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the functions of the response particle m / mm , a cover term for the various realizations of the bilabial [m], in Greek conversations from a CA perspective. We focus on one sequential position (second) and examine its phonetic/prosodic manifestations. We furthermore look into some multimodal aspects in the use of m / mm , more specifically, its co-occurrence with nods. Οur analysis establishes (a) the preferential relationship between the prosodically unmarked variants of the free-standing monosyllabic form with falling intonation and the actions of receipting information after a volunteered informing, agreeing with an assessment, responding affirmatively to a polar interrogative; (b) the binding relationship between the free-standing bisyllabic form with higher pitch and stress on the first syllable, a glottal stop between the syllables, plus falling intonation contour, and disaffirmation. Moreover, it is shown that the functional division of labor associated with the design of the vocal tokens is also reflected in the type of nod that goes with them. It is suggested that the vocal and the kinesic items be regarded as part and parcel of a single multimodal unit in the service of (minimal) alignment and, under certain conditions, of heightened interactional involvement. • Various realizations of [m] used for responding in Greek conversations are examined. • Such vocal responses most commonly co-occur with nods. • A division of labor between certain realizations of [m] and functions is observed. • The functional division of labor of vocal forms is reflected in the type of nod. • Along with prosody, nods may index respondents' upgraded interactional involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Answering Korean NPQs with SFN in general respects the truth-based answering system. • Answering Korean NPQs with LFN overall follows the polarity-based answering system. • Bias interacts with the negation forms for the acceptability of answers to Korean NPQs. With respect to how to answer polar questions, languages are taken to employ either the polarity-based system (e.g., English) or the truth-based one (e.g., Japanese). This dichotomy, however, is challenged when speakers make use of different negation forms and contextual information, particularly when answering negative polar questions (NPQs). This study investigates how two negation forms (short-form and long-form) and contextual bias affect the way speakers answer NPQs in Korean. The acceptability judgment experiment we conducted in this study shows that contextual bias, interacting with the negation form, often overrides the two-way distinction of answering systems. The results imply that a proper description of the variations in the Korean answering system to NPQs requires tight interactions among various grammatical components, including the discourse structure, rather than a syntax-based account that resorts solely to the syntactic structures of negation forms involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sounds spoken on the inbreath have been shown to be common in the world's languages, and in the Nordic languages ingressive speech seems to be especially frequent. The present study focuses on Finnish and Danish response particles spoken on the inbreath, by examining their uses in everyday talk-in-interaction in corpora of recorded interactions. The particles we examine and their non-ingressive counterparts can perform confirming and acknowledging actions. We analyze the particles as receipts to answers to questions, as responses to questions, as responses to assessments, and as responses to affiliation-seeking utterances. In these positions, the ingressive particles turn out to index that the content of the previous turn was already sufficiently established and, consequently, that there is nothing to add. In cases where an engaged response is called for, the particles are shown to have a disaffiliative potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most widespread form for neutral "yes" in the Survey of English Dialects is not yea or yes, but aye. It is used not only in the North and Midlands, but also in areas of the South of England. It is a feature of Scottish English, and is familiar from government in many English-speaking countries. We also find the aye-like ayuh in Northeast America. "Aye" appears suddenly about 1575 and is "exceedingly common" around 1600; it is initially written I and its origin, like yes, is uncertain. Ay is also found in Old Frisian, as well as Sater Frisian today (öäi, a'äi etc.). This study reviews a number of proposed etymologies, examining which can account for the occurrence or development of ay(e) in both languages. Based on a wider study of change in forms of "yes" and "no" in English, the author argues that aye–ay is a parallel development of interjection + particle. The study also suggests functional and phonological overlap with the pronominal echo I in English, but not Frisian, with the vocalic form of the pronoun and diphthongisation in the "Great Vowel Shift", accounting for the popularity and spelling I of "aye" around 1600. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares two Finnish change-of-state tokens, aijaa and aha , that share the same basic epistemic meaning: they treat the prior talk as new information. It will be shown that they differ with respect to what status they assign to the prior informing in the larger activity context and the import of the informing for the particle speaker's project. That is, aijaa treats the prior informing as newsworthy and thus worthy of further discussion, whereas aha receives informings that redirect the on-going talk in a way that has consequences for the aha speaker's project and thus requires reorientation. The general aim of the paper is to identify relevant parameters for distinguishing between change-of-state tokens in a language that has an abundance of elements for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conversation analytic and interactional studies, some responses are analyzed as being minimal. This article explores minimality in regard to two types of answers that appear to be used interchangeably as minimal responses to yes/no questions in Estonian. The answers represent typologically different formats, particles and echo answers (verb repeats). It is argued that minimality should be defined in a sequentially sensitive manner and that the two answer formats are used to display speakers' understanding of the status of the social action implemented in the preceding question. The data come from audio recordings of phone calls and face-to-face interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]