Article published In: Interactional Linguistics: Online-First Articles
Storytelling, lists, and the role of Catalan final particle i au
Published online: 3 June 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/il.24012.ser
https://doi.org/10.1075/il.24012.ser
Abstract
Interactional research into storytelling has focused on the
telling, the sequential organization of the narration in the turn-at-talk, while
research on lists looks at their structure in interaction. The present study
contributes to the scarce work on telling-endings and on generalized list
completers by focusing on the grammaticalized Catalan final particle i
au. Drawing from a vast corpus of oral narrations in Catalan
(58 hours), I show how speakers use i au in narrations to end a
series of actions and progress to the rest of the story. In lists, speakers
employ i au to put an end to an enumeration of similarly
related items, to indicate that no more may be added. Both ending functions are
achieved due to a pragmatic resignification of the core meanings of the
components of i au. The linking conjunction i
facilitates a sequential connection to the last element of the series, and the
functional use of au as an interjection contributes in
conveying an ending. Consequently, i au appears in structurally
similar contexts such as tellings and lists.
Keywords: storytelling, list, enumeration, Catalan, final particles
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 2.1(Story)tellings
- 2.2Lists
- 2.3Final i+ particles
- 3.Corpus and methodology
- 4.Analysis and results
- 4.1Possible functional origins of i au
- 4.2Sequential placement of the particle i au
- 4.2.1(Story)telling sequences
- 4.2.2Lists
- 4.2.2Co-occurrence with other i+ particles
- 5.Conclusions
- Note
References
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