Prosody as an activity-type distinctive cue in conversation: the case of so-called ‘astonished’ questions in repair initiation

Abstract

In this chapter, I shall show that specific prosodic marking cues are used by participants in German conversation to distinguish between ‘normal’ and so-called ‘surprised’ or ‘astonished’ questions in the initiation of repair. This distinction appears to be indicated by prosodic means only. Prosodically unmarked initiations of repair and their marked counterparts are shown to construct different subtypes within repair sequences, in that they make different sequential implications relevant for the next turn. Unlike a prosodically unmarked configuration in repair initiation, which is used to signal ‘normal’ problems of hearing and understanding, a prosodically marked configuration is used as an ‘astonished’ or ‘surprised’ signalling of a problem of expectation which requires special treatment. Via prosodic marking, any question and/or repair-initiation form can be made into an ‘astonished’ question. The use of ‘astonished’ questions, however, is restricted to the initiation of repair sequences. In section 1 of the chapter, I shall give an introduction to my terminology and the premises underlying my analysis. In section 2,1 shall present a first illustrative example of the particular contrast under analysis in this paper, before explicating the goals of my analysis in more detail in section 3. In section 4, further data extracts are presented in which the contrast between marked versus unmarked prosody is shown to be relevant for a variety of different repair-initiation types in conversation. These data will be used to argue that in order to explicate the basis of participants' differential interpretation of repair-initiation types – initiation types which are similar in linguistic structure and wording – prosody must necessarily be taken into account. Conclusions are drawn in section 5.

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