What Do Newsmark-Type Responses Invite? The Response Space After German echt

Abstract

This conversation analytic study examines responsive echt (“really”), which is commonly associated with “newsmarks,” in co-present German interaction. Across uses, echt-turns are a practice for topicalizing, however briefly, something in another participant’s just-prior turn. But this topicalization shapes the response space in systematically different ways: Echt-turns can be taken to (a) invite simple reconfirmation, (b) invite topical elaboration, or (c) solicit an account either to reconcile diverging expectations or to manage problems in acceptability. We demonstrate how both the design of echt-turns and participants’ epistemic positioning matter to how echt-turns are treated and shape interactional trajectories. By using the notion of “inviting” a next action, we highlight the importance of conceptualizing response relevance after second-position actions, and specifically after “newsmark-type” responses, as a gradient. Data are taken from everyday and institutional interaction and presented in German with English translations.

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