Cover not available

In:Imperative Turns at Talk: The design of directives in action
Edited by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Liisa Raevaara and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 30] 2017
► pp. 357–380

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 12
Managing compliance in violin instruction

The case of the Finnish clitic particles -pA and -pAs in imperatives and hortatives

 | University of Helsinki
Published online: 18 August 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.30.12ste
Abstract
The chapter considers the verbal design of Finnish second-person singular imperative and first-person plural hortative turns, asking whether and how those turns where there is a clitic particle -pA or -pAs attached to the finite verb differ from the non-cliticized turns, and whether -pA and -pAs are used in similar or dissimilar ways. The imperative and hortative turns used in the analysis are drawn from a data set of four violin lessons with a 5-year-old child and her teacher as the participants. All the imperative and hortative turns analyzed were spoken by the teacher to the child.
The analysis shows that the non-cliticized imperative or hortative turns and the ones with -pA or -pAs are used differently. The non-cliticized turns are common in contexts where the speaker and the recipient are actively engaged in an ongoing collaboration. The imperative and hortative turns with ‑pA occur characteristically after the recipient’s immediately preceding failures, which need to be remedied for the participants to be able to continue what they are up to. The imperatives and hortatives with ‑pAs are frequently used at activity transitions, where the speaker demonstrates her right to determine the broader agenda of the participants’ joint activity.
The chapter suggests that the linguistic design of Finnish second-person singular imperative and first-person plural hortative turns is informed by the speaker’s understanding of the extent to which, and the particular sense in which, the participants’ current actions are to be seen as joint ones. While the selection between imperatives and hortatives is warranted by the identity of the agent(s) of the nominated action (whether it is the recipient alone, or both the speaker and the recipient together), it is in and through the choices between the cliticized and non-cliticized formats that speakers invoke and manage the more specific basis upon which the recipient’s compliance can be expected.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The Finnish clitic particles -pA and -pAs
    • 1.2Music instruction as the research context
    • 1.3Data and method
  • 2.Analysis
    • 2.1Non-cliticized imperatives and hortatives
      • 2.1.1Second-person singular imperatives
      • 2.1.2First-person plural hortatives
      • 2.1.3Summary: Non-cliticized imperatives and hortatives
    • 2.2Imperatives and hortatives with -pA
      • 2.2.1Second-person singular imperatives
      • 2.2.2 First-person plural hortatives
      • 2.2.3Summary: Imperatives and hortatives with -pA
    • 2.3Imperatives and hortatives with -pAs
      • 2.3.1Second-person singular imperatives
      • 2.3.2First-person plural hortatives
      • 2.3.3Summary: Imperatives and hortatives with -pAs
  • 3.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
  • Appendix
References (63)
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2010. Imperatives and Commands. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Antaki, Charles, and Alexandra Kent. 2012. “Telling People What to Do (and Sometimes, Why): Contingency, Entitlement and Explanation in Staff Requests to Adults with Intellectual Impairments.” Journal of Pragmatics 44: 876–889. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barbieri, Daniele. 2014. “Discussion Paper: Between Sharing and Discourse.” Social Semiotics 24 (4): 530–539. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H. 1996. Using Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H., and Susan E. Brennan. 1991. “Grounding in Communication.” In Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition, ed. by Lauren B. Resnick, John M. Levine, and Stephanie D. Teasley, 127–149. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clayman, Steven, and John Heritage. 2015. “Benefactors and Beneficiaries: Benefactive Status and Stance in the Management of Offers and Requests.” In Requesting in Social Interaction, ed. by Paul Drew, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 55–86. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corkum, Valerie, and Chris Moore. 1998. “The Origins of Joint Visual Attention in Infants.” Developmental Psychology 34 (1): 28–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Marja Etelämäki. 2015. ”Nominated Actions and Their Targeted Agents in Finnish Conversational Directives.” Journal of Pragmatics 78: 7–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Craven, Alexandra, and Jonathan Potter. 2010. “Directives: Entitlement and Contingency in Action.” Discourse Studies 12 (4): 419–442. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curl, Traci S., and Paul Drew. 2008. “Contingency and Action: A Comparison of Two Forms of Requesting.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (2): 129–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Stefani, Elwys, and Anne-Danièle Gazin. 2014. “Instructional Sequences in Driving Lessons: Mobile Participants and the Temporal and Sequential Organization of Actions.” Journal of Pragmatics 65: 63–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dunham, Philip J., Frances Dunham, and Ann Curwin. 1993. “Joint-Attentional States and Lexical Acquisition at 18 Months.” Developmental Psychology 29 (5): 827–831. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Enfield, Nicholas J. 2006. “Social Consequences of Common Ground.” In Roots of Human Sociality, ed. by Nicholas J. Enfield, and Stephen C. Levinson, 399–430. Oxford, UK: Berg.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, and Asta Cekaite. 2013. “Calibration in Directive/Response Sequences in Family Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 46 (1): 122–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Orchestrating Directive Trajectories in Communicative Projects in Family Interaction.” In Requesting in Social Interaction: Studies in Language and Social Interaction, ed. by Paul Drew, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 185–214. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, Maria Vilkuna, Riitta Korhonen, Vesa Koivisto, Tarja Riitta Heinonen, and Irja Alho. 2004. Iso suomen kielioppi [The Comprehensive Grammar of Finnish]. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hanks, William F. 2006. “Context, Communicative.” In Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, ed. by Keith Brown, 115–128. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John, and Geoffrey Raymond. 2005. “The Terms of Agreement: Indexing Epistemic Authority and Subordination in Talk-in-interaction.” Social Psychology Quarterly 68 (1): 15–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jary, Mark, and Mikhail Kissine. 2014. Imperatives. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keisanen, Tiina, and Mirka Rauniomaa. 2012. “The Organization of Participation and Contingency in Pre-beginnings of Requests Sequences.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (4): 323–351. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendon, Adam. 1990. Conducting interaction: Patterns of Behavior in Focused Interactions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kidwell, Mardi, and Don H. Zimmerman. 2007. “Joint Attention as Action.” Journal of Pragmatics 39 (3): 592–611. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lauranto, Yrjö. 2013. “Suomen kielen imperatiivi – yksi paradigma, kaksi systeemiä [The imperative in Finnish – one paradigm, two systems].” Virittäjä 117 (2): 156–200.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Imperatiivi, käsky, direktiivi: Arkikeskustelun vaihtokauppakielioppia [Imperative, order, directive: Exchange grammar of everyday conversation]. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Direktiivisyyden rajoja: Suomen kielen vaihtokauppasyntaksia [Boundaries of directiveness: Exchange syntax of Finnish]. ([URL], Accessed on 2015-07-02.)
Lerner, Gene H. 1995. “Turn Design and the Organization of Participation in Instructional Activities.” Discourse Processes 19: 111–131. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Macbeth, Douglas H. 1991. “Teacher Authority as Practical Action.” Linguistics and Education 3: 281–313. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004. “The Relevance of Repair for Classroom Correction.” Language in Society 33: 703–736. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McHoul, Alexander. 1978. “The Organization of Turns at Formal Talk in the Classroom.” Language in Society 7: 183–213. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merlino, Sara. 2014. “Singing in “Another” Language: How Pronunciation Matters in the Organisation of Choral Rehearsals.” Social Semiotics 24 (4): 420–445. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2009. “The Embodied and Negotiated Production of Assessments in Instructed Actions.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 42: 329–361. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. “Emergent Focused Interactions in Public Places: A Systematic Analysis of the Multimodal Achievement of a Common Interactional Space.” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (10): 1977–1997. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Coordinating Mobile Action in Real Time: The Timely Organization of Directives in Video Games.” In Interaction and Mobility. Language and the Body in Motion, ed. by Pentti Haddington, Lorenza Mondada, and Maurice Nevile, 300–341. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Requesting Immediate Action in the Surgical Operating Room: Time, Embodied Resources and Praxeological Embeddedness.” In Requesting in Social Interaction: Studies in Language and Social, ed. by Paul Drew, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 269–302. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nishizaka, Aug. 2006. “What to Learn: The Embodied Structure of the Environment.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 39 (2): 119–154. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parton, Katharine. 2014. “Epistemic Stance in Orchestral Interaction.” Social Semiotics 24 (4): 402–419. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raevaara, Liisa. 2004. ”Mitäs me sovittais: S-partikkelin sisältävien hakukysymysten tehtävistä. [On the use of the particle ‑s in open ended questions].” Virittäjä 108 (4): 531–558.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reed, Darren, and Beatrice Szczepek Reed. 2014. “The Emergence of Learnables in Music Masterclasses.” Social Semiotics 24 (4): 446–467. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rossi, Giovanni. 2012. “Bilateral and Unilateral Requests: The Use of Imperatives and Mi X? Interrogatives in Italian.” Discourse Processes 49 (5): 426–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1992. Lectures on Conversation, Volume 2, ed. by Gail Jefferson. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emmanuel. 2007. Sequence Organization in Interaction: Volume 1: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shore, Susanna. 1986. Onko suomessa passiivia? [Is there a passive in Finnish?]. Suomi 133. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. “On the So-called Finnish Passive.” Word 39: 151–176. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena. 2001. ”Lääkärin ohjeet [Doctor’s instructions].” In Keskustelu lääkärin vastaanotolla, ed. by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Anssi Peräkylä, and Kari Eskola, 89–111. Tampere: Vastapaino.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stalnaker, Robert. 2002. “Common ground.” Linguistics and Philosophy 25: 701–721. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stevanovic, Melisa. 2011. “Participants’ Deontic Rights and Action Formation: The Case of Declarative Requests for Action. Interaction and Linguistic Structures.” InLiSt 52. ([URL])
. 2013b. Deontic Rights in Interaction. A Conversation Analytic Study on Authority and Cooperation. Academic dissertation, University of Helsinki, Department of Social Research.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013c. “Managing Participation in Interaction: The Case of Humming.” Text and Talk 33 (1): 113–137. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stevanovic, Melisa, and Anssi Peräkylä. 2012. “Deontic Authority in Interaction: The Right to Announce, Propose, and Decide.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (3): 297–321. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Three Orders in the Organization of Human Action: On the Interface between Knowledge, Power, and Emotion in Interaction and Social Relations.” Language in Society 43 (2): 185–207. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stevanovic, Melisa, and Jan Svennevig. 2015. “Introduction: Epistemics and Deontics in Conversational Directives.” Journal of Pragmatics 78: 1–6. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szczepek Reed, Beatrice, Darren Reed, and Elizabeth Haddon. 2013. “NOW or NOT NOW: Coordinating Restarts in the Pursuits of Learnables in Vocal Masterclasses.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 46 (1): 22–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. 1995. “Joint Attention as Social Cognition.” In Joint Attention: Its Origins and Role in Development, ed. by Chris Moore, and Philip J. Dunham, 103–130. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Origins of Human Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Why We Cooperate: Based on the 2008 Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Stanford University. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael, and Michael J. Farrar. 1986. “Joint Attention and Early Language.” Child Development 57 (6): 1454–1463. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Veronesi, Daniela. 2014. “Correction Sequences and Semiotic Resources in Ensemble Music Workshops: The case of Conduction.” Social Semiotics 24 (4): 468–494. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weeks, Peter. 1996. “A Rehearsal of a Beethoven Passage: An Analysis of Correction Talk.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 29 (3): 247–290. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wootton, Anthony J. 1997. Interaction and the Development of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005. “Interactional and Sequential Configurations Informing Request Format Selection in Children’s Speech.” In Syntax and Lexis in Conversation: Studies on the Use of Linguistic Resources in Talk-in-interaction, ed. by Auli Hakulinen, and Margret Selting, 185–208. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zinken, Jörg, and Eva Ogiermann. 2013. “Responsibility and Action: Invariants and Diversity in Requests for Objects in British English and Polish Interaction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 46 (3): 256–276. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (14)

Cited by 14 other publications

Kannisto, Antti, Samu Pehkonen & Maria Frick
2025.  Ole hyvä (‘please’) + imperative. Interactional Linguistics 5:1-2 ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Suomalainen, Karita
2025. Second-person singular imperatives in Finnish everyday conversations. In Grammar in Action [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 37], ► pp. 264 ff. DOI logo
Ostermann, Ana Cristina, Chase Wesley Raymond & Paul Drew
2024. Morphology in action: Diminutives in Brazilian obstetric and gynecological consultations. Language in Society ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Ekström, Mats & Melisa Stevanovic
2023. Conversation analysis and power: examining the descendants and antecedents of social action. Frontiers in Sociology 8 DOI logo
Helmer, Henrike
2023. Ad-hoc-compounds in spoken German. Interactional Linguistics 3:1-2 ► pp. 67 ff. DOI logo
Vatanen, Anna
2023. Embodied Noticings as Repair Initiations: On Multiactivity in Choir Rehearsals. In Complexity of Interaction, ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Raymond, Chase Wesley
2022. Suffixation and sequentiality. Interactional Linguistics 2:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Ehmer, Oliver & Geert Brône
2021. Instructing embodied knowledge: multimodal approaches to interactive practices for knowledge constitution. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s4 DOI logo
Golato, Peter
2020. Recruitments in French. In Mobilizing others [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 33], ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Stevanovic, Melisa & Arniika Kuusisto
2019. Teacher Directives in Children’s Musical Instrument Instruction: Activity Context, Student Cooperation, and Institutional Priority. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 63:7 ► pp. 1022 ff. DOI logo
Stevanovic, Melisa
2018. Social deontics: A nano‐level approach to human power play. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 48:3 ► pp. 369 ff. DOI logo
Stevanovic, Melisa
2020. Mobilizing student compliance. In Mobilizing others [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 33], ► pp. 115 ff. DOI logo
Stevanovic, Melisa
2021. Monitoring and evaluating body knowledge: metaphors and metonymies of body position in children’s music instrument instruction. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s4 DOI logo
Stevanovic, Melisa
2021. Three Multimodal Action Packages in Responses to Proposals During Joint Decision-Making: The Embodied Delivery of Positive Assessments Including the Finnish Particle Ihan “Quite”. Frontiers in Communication 6 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue