Va ja inte gillar e hennes nasala röst : Fokusfinala utbrytningar i tal i interaktion

Abstract

In this paper, we present an interactional analysis of pseudo-cleft constructions in Swedish talk-in-interaction. The pseudo-cleft construction is an existing speakers’ resource in Swedish interaction, and it displays regular structural patterns and characteristic interactional functions. Swedish pseudo clefts, such as "va ja inte gillar e hennes nasala röst" ‘what I don’t like is her nasal voice’, are bipartite constructions where Part A of the construction, "va ja inte gillar" ‘what I don’t like’, is a nominal relative clause headed by the relative pronoun "vad" ‘what’ or the demonstrative "det" ‘that’, often combined with the relativizer "som". The copula verb, "e" ‘is’, links Part A with the subjective complement, Part B, "hennes nasala röst" ‘her nasal voice’, which is traditionally analysed as the focus-bearing cleft constituent. As our analysis show,s in conversational, online speaking there is some variation in the degree to which pseudo-cleft constructions are syntactically integrated: from fully integrated biclausal constructions to non-copular variants and further to variants in which the latter turn-part stands in a loose relation to the cleft clause or is aborted or even missing. Our analysis is based on a collection of ca. 80 pseudo-cleft constructions excerpted from audio- and video-recorded interactions. We will account for the construction’s functional properties that have to do with projecting actions and generating discourse events, e.g. showing that Part A has an important turn-projecting function in that it often discloses the speaker’s stance towards the issue at hand. The pseudo-cleft constructions are recurrently employed for marking discourse shifts, e.g. from a positive to a negative stance. These can be paralleled with previous studies on pseudo-cleft constructions e.g. in English, German, French, and Hebrew (e.g. Hopper & Thompson 2008; Günthner 2011; Pekarek Doehler 2011; Maschler & Fishman 2020). Our findings shed new light on structural and functional properties of pseudo-clefts in the Swedish language, but also more generally in spoken interaction.