Home Kedo-ending turn format as a formula for a problem statement with a deontic implication
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Kedo-ending turn format as a formula for a problem statement with a deontic implication

  • Daisuke Yokomori EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: May 4, 2023
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

In many languages, some turn formats are highly fixed and closely associated with specific interactional contexts, and thus function as formulas for particular actions. In Japanese, one of the recurring turn formats for referring to a problem found in the surrounding situation or other’s conduct is a clause ending with the contrastive particle kedo ‘but’. Based on close examination of examples from naturally-occurring conversations using the analytic framework of Interactional Linguistics, this article illustrates that the format with kedo is used to assign a deontic authority concerning an observed problem to the recipient and thereby leaving to the recipient a decision about how the problem should be dealt with and by whom. This shows a clear contrast with the turn format ending with yo, which is used to inform the recipients of what the speaker knows as a problem, and thereby to ask the hearers to register it.


Corresponding author: Daisuke Yokomori, Kyoto University, Yoshida Nihonmatsu-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan, E-mail:

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 17KT0061, 20K13007, and 20H05630. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments on earlier versions of this paper. I also appreciate Daniel Gallagher and David Dalsky for their editorial assistance. Hiroko Nishida helped me to access the string quartet data cited as Excerpt 2. Finally, much gratitude goes to the editing team of this Special Issue (Reijirou Shibasaki, Tomoyuki Tsuchiya, Ryoko Suzuki, and Tsuyoshi Ono) for their careful support in preparing and finalizing this paper.

Appendix: Transcription symbols

,

continuing intonation

.

terminal intonation (falling)

?

rising intonation

¿

slightly rising intonation

_

level intonation

[ ]

overlapping speech

( )

uncertain hearing

(.)

micro pause

(2.1)

long pause and its length in seconds

:

lengthening

-

truncated speech

=

latching (no gap between two lines)

huh

laughter or laughing quality

h

hearable exhalation

(h)

laughter produced with a lexical item

º

soft voice

___

loud voice

< >

slowed down speech

> <

accelerated speech

$ $

smiley voice

(( ))

situational or non-verbal information

+

the moment when the corresponding figure captures

*

the moment when the transcribed bodily behavior starts

References

Canavan, Alexandra & George Zipperlen. 1996. CALLHOME Japanese speech. Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania.Search in Google Scholar

Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 2014. What does grammar tell us about action? Pragmatics 24(3). 623–647.10.1075/prag.24.3.08couSearch in Google Scholar

Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth & Tsuyoshi Ono. 2007. ‘Incrementing’ in conversation: A comparison of practices in English, German and Japanese. Pragmatics 17(4). 513–552.10.1075/prag.17.4.02couSearch in Google Scholar

Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth & Margret Selting. 2018. Interactional Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781139507318Search in Google Scholar

Curl, Tracy S. & Paul Drew. 2008. Contingency and action: A comparison of two forms of requesting. Research on Language and Social Interaction 41(2). 129–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351810802028613.Search in Google Scholar

Drew, Paul. 2013. Turn design. In Jack Sidnell & Tanya Stivers (eds.), The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, 131–149. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781118325001.ch7Search in Google Scholar

Hayano, Kaoru. 2011. Claiming epistemic primacy: Yo-marked assessments in Japanese. In Tanya Stivers, Loreza Mondada & Jakob Steensig (eds.), The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, 58–81. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511921674.004Search in Google Scholar

Hayano, Kaoru. 2013. Territories of knowledge in Japanese conversation. Nijmegen: Doctoral dissertation, Radboud University Nijmegen.Search in Google Scholar

Heritage, John. 1984. A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement. In J. Max Atkinson & John Heritage (eds.), Structures of Social Action, 299–345. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511665868.020Search in Google Scholar

Heritage, John. 1998. Oh-prefaced responses to inquiry. Language in Society 27(3). 291–334. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404500019990.Search in Google Scholar

Heritage, John. 2002. Oh-prefaced responses to assessments: A method of modifying agreement/disagreement. In Cecilia E. Ford, Barbara A. Fox & Sandra A. Thompson (eds.), The Language of Turn and Sequence, 196–224. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780195124897.003.0008Search in Google Scholar

Heritage, John. 2012. The epistemic engine: Sequence organization and territories of knowledge. Research on Language and Social Interaction 45(1). 30–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2012.646685.Search in Google Scholar

Heritage, John. 2013. Action formation and its epistemic (and other) backgrounds. Discourse Studies 15(5). 551–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445613501449.Search in Google Scholar

Heritage, John & Geoffrey Raymond. 2005. The terms of agreement: Indexing epistemic authority and subordination in talk-in-interaction. Social Psychology Quarterly 68(1). 15–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/019027250506800103.Search in Google Scholar

Holt, Elizabeth. 2012. Using laugh responses to defuse complaints. Research on Language and Social Interaction 45(4). 430–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2012.726886.Search in Google Scholar

Itani, Reiko. 1992. Japanese conjunction kedo (‘but’) in utterance-final use: A relevance-based analysis. English Linguistics 9. 265–283. https://doi.org/10.9793/elsj1984.9.265.Search in Google Scholar

Jefferson, Gail. 2004. Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In Gene H. Lerner (ed.), Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, 13–31. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.125.02jefSearch in Google Scholar

Jefferson, Gail. 2015. Talking About Troubles in Conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Kendrick, Kobin H. & Paul Drew. 2016. Recruitment: Offers, requests, and the organization of assistance in interaction. Research on Language and Social Interaction 49(1). 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2016.1126436.Search in Google Scholar

Koiso, Hanae, Yasuharu Den, Yuriko Iseki, Wakako Kashino, Yoshiko Kawabata, Ken’ya Nishikawa, Yayoi Tanaka & Yasuyuki Usuda. 2018. Construction of the corpus of everyday Japanese conversation: An interim report. In Proceedings of LREC2018, 4259–4264.Search in Google Scholar

Miyata, Susanne, Kyoko Banno, Saya Konishi, Ayumi Matsui, Shiori Matsumoto, Rie Ooki, Akane Takahashi & Kyoko Muraki. 2010. Japanese Sakura Corpus. Pittsburgh: Talk Bank. Available at: https://ca.talkbank.org/access/Sakura.html.Search in Google Scholar

Morita, Emi. 2012. “This talk needs to be registered”: The metapragmatic meaning of the Japanese interactional particle yo. Journal of Pragmatics 44(13). 1721–1742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.07.011.Search in Google Scholar

Nakayama, Toshihide & Kumiko Ichihashi-Nakayama. 1997. Japanese kedo: Discourse genre and grammaticization. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 6. 607–618.Search in Google Scholar

Nihongo Kijutsu Bunpoo Kenkyuukai. 2008. Fukubun [Complex Sentences]. Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers.Search in Google Scholar

Ono, Tsuyoshi, Sandra A. Thompson & Yumi Sasaki. 2012. Japanese negotiation through emerging final particles in everyday talk. Discourse Processes 49(3–4). 243–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853x.2012.664759.Search in Google Scholar

Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff & Gail Jefferson. 1974. A simplest systematics for the organization of turn taking for conversation. Language 50(4–1). 696–735. https://doi.org/10.2307/412243.Search in Google Scholar

Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1988. Goffman and the analysis of conversation. In Paul Drew & Anthony Wootton (eds.), Erving Goffman: Exploring the Interaction Order, 89–135. Cambridge: Polity Press.Search in Google Scholar

Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis, vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511791208Search in Google Scholar

Stevanovic, Melisa. 2012. Establishing joint decisions in a dyad. Discourse Studies 14(6). 779–803. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445612456654.Search in Google Scholar

Stevanovic, Melisa & Anssi Peräkylä. 2012. Deontic authority in interaction: The right to announce, propose, and decide. Research on Language and Social Interaction 45(3). 297–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2012.699260.Search in Google Scholar

Thompson, Sandra A., Barbara A. Fox & Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen. 2015. Grammar in Everyday Talk: Building Responsive Actions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139381154Search in Google Scholar

Yokomori, Daisuke. 2013. Bunpoo-kenkyuu to guroobaru-na bunmyaku: Nihongo kedo-setsu o reini [Grammar studies and global contexts: The case of Japanese kedo-clauses]. In Kazuhiro Kodama & Tetsuharu Koyama (eds.), Gengo no Soohatsu to Shintaisei [Emergence and Embodiment of Language]. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Search in Google Scholar

Yokomori, Daisuke & Tomoko Endo. 2022. Projective/retrospective linking of a contrastive idea: Interactional practices of turn-initial and turn-final uses of kedo ‘but’ in Japanese. Journal of Pragmatics 196. 24–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2022.03.017.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2021-12-03
Accepted: 2022-05-12
Published Online: 2023-05-04
Published in Print: 2023-05-25

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 28.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jjl-2023-2006/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button