"You know" as an information status enhancing device

Abstract

This article addresses the usage of "you know" in naturally occurring interactional data from a functional-linguistic and conversationanalytic perspective. We suggest that "you know" is more than a lexical choice made by the speaker to express his/her unilateral communicative desires. It is a locally occasioned, emergent resource that both the speaker and the hearer draw upon to jointly structure information and to structure interaction. Our study differs from previous research in that we emphasize the importance of lexico-grammatical contexts and topical and conversational-sequential environments in which "you know" is used. Specifically, we argue that participants use "you know" to enhance the status of information in terms of saliency, importance, and newness, which in turn structures interactional participation in specific ways.