Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Nonnative Speakers' Use of Yeah in English Spoken Discourse

2004; Volume: 11; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

2713-4091

Yong-Yae Park,

Linguistic Variation and Morphology

This study explores speakers' interactional practices through their use of yeah in English native speaker (NS)/nonnative speaker (NNS) interaction within the framework of conversation analysis. The data for the study include 200 minutes of interviews and 150 minutes of tutoring sessions. The locus of yeah to be focused on is after the NS's use of continuer such as uh huh. More specifically, after the NS yields his/her turn with a continuer, the NNS does not continue but provides yeah first and the talk mayor may not go on. Four interactional environments of yeah were identified and analyzed and the results show that yeah in those contexts seems to be used to mark the prior turn to be complete and to acknowledge the continuer before proceeding any further. These uses of yeah reflect the NNS's doing being nonnative (Wong 2000b) and at the same time demonstrate how NNSs are able to manage and fully participate in interaction with their limited linguistic competence. (Seoul National University)