Structuring response: Information receipts in Greek talk-in-interaction

This thesis investigates some of the practices by which interactants engage in responding to an informing in Greek talk-in-interaction. Using the analytical methodology of Conversation Analysis (CA), I investigate the ways in which responses to informings are typically constructed and how speakers recruit the assistance of their interlocutors in order to format their following action by examining the following particles: entaksi (mainly in the beginning of a turn), ne (=yes) with a questioning prosody, ela + name (sometimes incremented with the Greek particle re), bravo, etsi den ine (a form of tag question in Greek) and etsi in the final position of a turn. The analysis focuses on the sequential and social implications of these particles in interaction and suggests that there are certain resources interactants deploy in response to an informing, especially in turn-initial position, to indicate their stance towards the prior turn. Interlocutors deploy different practices in talk that serve the avoidance of conflicts, especially in the context of interactions between friends and intimates. The tokens under investigation are deployed by recipients of an informing to position themselves towards a prior turn but at the same time indicate the degree to which they accept the informing, absolute agreement or preliminary to a disagreement. As the first conversation analytic investigation of information receipts in Greek talk-in-interaction, this study attempts to illustrate the interactional significance of receipt tokens in the organization of talk and the accomplishment of actions in interaction.