Marking understanding versus receipting information in talk: Achso. and ach in German interaction

Abstract

This conversation analytic study contrasts the German particles ach and achso. and discusses their form, function and interactional trajectory. It extends Golato and Betz’s (2008) work on ach and achso. in third positions of repair sequences to other positions and actions, and compares it to work on English oh (Heritage, 1984, 1998, 2002, 2005; Local, 1996). Based on the analysis of over 200 instances, I argue that ach so. is used to explicitly mark understanding of a prior action or of the import of the speaker’s own actions while ach functions as a change-of-state token marking the receipt of information without explicitly marking understanding. I discuss the implications of the findings with regard to conversation and cognition and issues of translatability.