John Benjamins Publishing Company
When ‘yes’ is not enough – as an answer to a yes/no question
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Abstract
This article investigates confirming answers to yes/no questions that consist of more than the type-conforming ‘yes’ token. The study is based on 160 cases of question-answer sequences with confirming answers, taken from a corpus of Danish interactions. The authors claim that certain actions, which are carried out as yes/no questions, demand a response unit that consists of ‘yes’ plus an elaboration. The actions that have this far-reaching projection are: (1) expansion-eliciting questions, (2) knowledge discrepancy questions, and (3) specification requests. The authors found no simple relationship between syntax and action. Some of the actions that demand more than a ‘yes’ can be carried out with both interrogative and declarative syntax, whereas others are done only interrogatively. Keywords: yes/no questions; responses; confirmations; elaborations
Abstract
This article investigates confirming answers to yes/no questions that consist of more than the type-conforming ‘yes’ token. The study is based on 160 cases of question-answer sequences with confirming answers, taken from a corpus of Danish interactions. The authors claim that certain actions, which are carried out as yes/no questions, demand a response unit that consists of ‘yes’ plus an elaboration. The actions that have this far-reaching projection are: (1) expansion-eliciting questions, (2) knowledge discrepancy questions, and (3) specification requests. The authors found no simple relationship between syntax and action. Some of the actions that demand more than a ‘yes’ can be carried out with both interrogative and declarative syntax, whereas others are done only interrogatively. Keywords: yes/no questions; responses; confirmations; elaborations
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The question of units for language, action and interaction 1
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Part I. Units of language revisited
- Units and/or Action Trajectories? 13
- The dynamics of incrementation in utterance-building 57
- From “intonation units” to cesuring – an alternative approach to the prosodic-phonetic structuring of talk-in-interaction 91
- Perception of prosodic boundaries by untrained listeners 125
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Part II. Units of action and interaction
- At the intersection of turn and sequence organization 169
- When ‘yes’ is not enough – as an answer to a yes/no question 207
- Emerging units and emergent forms of participation within a unit in Japanese interaction 243
- Phonetic resources in the construction of social actions 277
- Building an instructional project 313
- Language and the body in the construction of units in Mandarin face-to-face interaction 343
- Index 377
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The question of units for language, action and interaction 1
-
Part I. Units of language revisited
- Units and/or Action Trajectories? 13
- The dynamics of incrementation in utterance-building 57
- From “intonation units” to cesuring – an alternative approach to the prosodic-phonetic structuring of talk-in-interaction 91
- Perception of prosodic boundaries by untrained listeners 125
-
Part II. Units of action and interaction
- At the intersection of turn and sequence organization 169
- When ‘yes’ is not enough – as an answer to a yes/no question 207
- Emerging units and emergent forms of participation within a unit in Japanese interaction 243
- Phonetic resources in the construction of social actions 277
- Building an instructional project 313
- Language and the body in the construction of units in Mandarin face-to-face interaction 343
- Index 377
