Echo Utterances and the Interactional Functions in Natural Conversation
Echo utterances are common linguistic phenomenon in interaction,which refer to formally reducible,semantically consis-tent,syntactically independent and unanswerable repetition of the aforementioned other people's utterances by the speaker in an adjacent pair and its expansion of conversation.As responsive utterances,echo utterances have interactivity,and the interpreta-tion of their discourse functions depends on the interactive dialogue context.Focusing on the interaction between participants in communication,we take speaker intention as the fundamental standard,and identify the core function of echo utterances as high-lighting the"alignment"of the speaker,simultaneously forming a continuum of different degrees of alignment,which is affiliate,accept,seek explanation,seek confirmation,doubt,disaffiliate.The using of echo utterances usually is with high degree of a-lignment of the speaker.The sequence of frequency is"affiliate＞accept＞seek confirmation＞seek explanation＞doubt＞disaffi-liate".According to the institutional degree of the conversation,the sequence of"courtroom conversation＞doctor-patient conver-sation＞interview conversation＞daily conversation"can be formed.Echo utterances in four discourse types have commonalities and differences in interactional functions,which are associated with institutional characteristics in different discourse types.
natural conversationecho utteranceinteractional functionspeaker intentiondegree of alignmentinstitutional
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
