Affiliation:
1. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the forms and functions of answers to proposals for joint action,
implemented through polar interrogatives, in Greek telephone calls. Our analysis indicates a distinct functional distribution of
three types of accepting answers to such proposals. Particle-type answers do ‘simple’ acceptance of the proposal, i.e. they only
display the respondent’s willingness to take on the proposed action and nothing else, while repetition-type answers display the
speaker’s epistemic/deontic stance towards additional aspects of the proposal. With a third type of responses, speakers accept the proposal in
a mitigated manner. Our findings align with Enfield et al.’s (2019) conclusion that
particles serve as pragmatically unmarked polar answers. They do not, however, evince the prevalence of this type of answer to
proposals to the same extent as to epistemically oriented polar interrogatives.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Philosophy,Language and Linguistics