Definitely indefinite Negotiating intersubjective common ground in everyday interaction in Finnish

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Abstract

This chapter concerns expressions which seem internally contradictory because they consist of both a recognitional and a non-recognitional element. They contain both the Finnish demonstrative se ‘that, the’, a recognitional, as in se ihminen ‘that/the person’, and one of the indefinite determiners yksi ‘one’, semmonen ‘such’, and joku ‘some’, all of which are non-recognitionals, resulting in expressions such as se joku ihminen ‘that/the some person’. The chapter shows that each of these expressions has its own home environment and expresses a distinct epistemic stance. The main findings are that these expressions constitute a fine-grained resource for the negotiation of relative epistemic status and are tools for building intersubjective common ground in interaction.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIntersubjectivity in Action : Studies in language and social interaction
EditorsJan Lindström, Ritva Laury, Anssi Peräkylä, Marja-Leena Sorjonen
Number of pages20
Place of PublicationAmsterdam
PublisherJohn Benjamins
Publication date2021
Pages41-60
ISBN (Print)9789027209405
ISBN (Electronic)9789027259035
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
MoE publication typeA3 Book chapter

Publication series

NamePragmatics and Beyond New Series
Volume326
ISSN (Print)0922-842X

Fields of Science

  • Definite
  • Determiner
  • Epistemic
  • Identifiable
  • Indefinite
  • Recognitional
  • Specific
  • 5141 Sociology
  • 6121 Languages

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