More than a summarizing conjunction

As a linking element, zongzhi ‘in sum, to sum up’ displays archaic qualities and is most commonly associated with formal written Chinese discourse. However, this paper demonstrates that zongzhi can also be deployed in dialogic interactions in contemporary spoken Chinese to accomplish distinct social actions. Drawing on a variety of dialogic data, we identify a major distinction between tokens produced by the primary speaker and those produced by the respondent. Tokens from the primary speaker fall into three subcategories, corresponding to a person-based grouping: (1) first-person tokens are used to display the speaker’s affective stance toward the stated situation; (2) second-person tokens can address the interlocutor’s concerns; and (3) third-person tokens function primarily for informing and/or explaining. Although zongzhi-prefaced turns by respondents are relatively rare, they are noteworthy for their role in transforming the participation framework with distinct interactional functions. Additionally, zongzhi tokens are often associated with prosodic prominence and occur at points of conversation sequential transition. We offer a unified account of these diverse uses by linking them to some of the requirements of sequence closings in conversation. We conclude by discussing the broader implications of these findings for understanding lexical expressions of summarization, totality, and/or inclusivity. We emphasize that viewing grammar and social interaction as interdependent provides a productive framework for analyzing lexical tokens cutting across both written and spoken genres, as well as their variation within speech registers.