Cover not available

In:Between Turn and Sequence: Turn-initial particles across languages
Edited by John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 31] 2018
► pp. 119–154

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

Chapter 5
Diverging from ‘business as usual’

Turn-initial ngala in Garrwa conversation

 | University of Queensland
Published online: 19 July 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.31.05mus
Abstract
This paper presents the first detailed attempt to analyse the interactional functions of a turn-initial particle in an Australian Aboriginal language. The Garrwa particle ngala has grammatical properties of a clause connector that sets up a contrast between two simultaneous but distinct events (similar to English while). In this paper I show that ngala is used in conversation turn-initially to simultaneously connect the upcoming talk with the prior turn and to project that the upcoming turn diverges in trajectory from the prior talk or course of action. I also show how the clause connecting and turn-initial functions of ngala are characterised by distinct syntactic and prosodic shapes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Garrwa people
  • 3.Garrwa language and the grammar of ngala
  • 4. Ngala in conversation
    • 4.1Data
    • 4.2 Ngala establishing connections between speaker’s current and prior TCU
    • 4.3 Ngala in co-construction
  • 5.Pre-core ngala as a turn-initial particle
    • 5.1Turn-initial ngala in responses to embodied actions
    • 5.2Turn-initial ngala in responses to prior turns
    • 5.3Turn-initial ngala in topic management
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
References (25)
References
Anderson, Stephen. 2005. Aspects of the Theory of Clitics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auer, Peter. 2005. “Projection in Interaction and Projection in Grammar.” 25 (1):7–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 2004. “Prosody and Sequence Organisation in English Conversation. The Case of New Beginnings.” In Sound Patterns in Interaction: Cross-linguistic Studies from Conversation, ed. by Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, and Cecilia E. Ford, 335–376. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DuBois, John. 2014. “Towards a Dialogic Syntax.” Cognitive Linguistics 25 (3):359–410.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gardner, Rod, and Ilana Mushin. 2015. “Extended Transition Spaces.” Frontiers in Psychology 6:251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, Jo Ann. 2004 [1978]. “The amplitude shift mechanism in conversational closing sequences.” In Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, ed. by Gene H. Lerner, 257–297. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 2012. “Epistemics in Action: Action Formation and Territories of Knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (1):1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Well-Prefaced Turns in English Conversation: A Conversation Analytic Perspective.” Journal of Pragmatics 88:88–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul, and Elizabeth Traugott. 2003. Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kamio, Akio. 1997. Territory of Information. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keevallik, Leelo. 2010. “Bodily Quoting in Dance Correction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 43 (4):401–426. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindström, Jan. 2006. “Grammar in the Service of Interaction: Exploring Turn Organization in Swedish.” Research on Language and Social Interaction, 39 (1):81–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Rethinking Language, Mind and World Dialogically: Interactional and Contextual Theories of Human Sense-Making. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2007. “Multimodal Resources for Turn-Taking Pointing and the Emergence of Possible Next Speakers.” Discourse Studies 9 (2):194–225. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “Understanding as an Embodied, Situated and Sequential Achievement in Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2):542–552. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Motivations for Second Position: Evidence from North-Central Australia.” Linguistic Typology 10:267–326. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Code-Switching as an Interactional Resource in Garrwa Talk-In-Interaction.” Australian Journal of Linguistics 30 (4):471–496. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. A Grammar of (Western) Garrwa. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mushin, Ilana, and Rod Gardner. 2009. “Silence is Talk: Conversational Silences in Australian Aboriginal Talk-In-Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (10):2033–2052. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey, and Tanya Stivers. 2001. “Achieving Activity Transitions in Physician-Patient Encounters.” Human Communication Research 27 (2):253–298.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel, and Gene Lerner. 2009. “Beginning to Respond: Well-Prefaced Responses to Wh-Questions.” Research on Language and Social Interaction. 42 (2):91–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simpson, Jane. 2007. “Expressing Pragmatic Constraints on Word Order in Warlpiri.” In Architectures, Rules and Preferences: Variation on Themes by Joan W. Bresnan, ed. by Annie Zaenen, Jane Simpson, Tracy Holloway King, Jane Grimshaw, Joan Maling, and Chris Manning, 403–427. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simpson, Jane, and Ilana Mushin. 2008. “Clause Initial in Four Australian Languages.” In Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages, ed. by Ilana Mushin, and Brett Baker, 25–58. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Bolden, Galina B., John Heritage & Marja-Leena Sorjonen
2023. Introduction. In Responding to Polar Questions across Languages and Contexts [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 35], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Claire Bowern
2023. The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages, DOI logo
Mushin, Ilana, Joe Blythe, Josua Dahmen, Caroline de Dear, Rod Gardner, Francesco Possemato & Lesley Stirling
2023. Towards an interactional grammar of interjections: Expressing compassion in four Australian languages. Australian Journal of Linguistics 43:2 ► pp. 158 ff. DOI logo
Mushin, Ilana & Simona Pekarek Doehler
2021. Linguistic structures in social interaction. Interactional Linguistics 1:1 ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Mushin, Ilana
2020. Multiple nominal expressions in Garrwa conversation. In The ‘Noun Phrase’ across Languages [Typological Studies in Language, 128], ► pp. 211 ff. 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