Aino Koivisto | University of Helsinki (original) (raw)
Papers by Aino Koivisto
Handbook of pragmatics online, Nov 20, 2020
International journal of literary linguistics, May 17, 2016
This article analyzes the dynamics of fictional dialogue in three short stories by the Finnish au... more This article analyzes the dynamics of fictional dialogue in three short stories by the Finnish author Rosa Liksom. These stories are constructed almost entirely of dialogue, with minimal involvement on the part of the narrator. We adopt two different approaches to dialogue. First, we analyze dialogue from a micro level, as interaction between the characters within the storyworlds, then from a more holistic perspective, paying attention to how dialogue contributes to the rhetorical structure and ethical interpretation of the stories. We show that resorting mainly to dialogue as a narrative mode works as a way of depicting tensions between Liksom's characters, and between them and the surrounding fictional world. This, in turn, engages the reader in an interpretative process to understand the story's logic both within the fictional worlds and on the level of communication between the implied author and the authorial audience.
John Benjamins Publishing Company eBooks, Mar 15, 2021
Journal of Pragmatics, Oct 1, 2016
This paper compares two Finnish change-of-state tokens, aijaa and aha, that share the same basic ... more This paper compares two Finnish change-of-state tokens, aijaa and aha, that share the same basic epistemic meaning: they treat the prior talk as new information. It will be shown that they differ with respect to what status they assign to the prior informing in the larger activity context and the import of the informing for the particle speaker's project. That is, aijaa treats the prior informing as newsworthy and thus worthy of further discussion, whereas aha receives informings that redirect the ongoing talk in a way that has consequences for the aha speaker's project and thus requires reorientation. The general aim of the paper is to identify relevant parameters for distinguishing between change-of-state tokens in a language that has an abundance of elements for this purpose.
Research on Language and Social Interaction, Jul 1, 2013
This article identifies a phenomenon called “the preference for remembering.” This is conversatio... more This article identifies a phenomenon called “the preference for remembering.” This is conversationalists’ orientation to their epistemic responsibilities to remember and to take into account things from the past that are relevant to the here-and-now interactional moment. The focus is on the Finnish particle cluster ai nii(n) (“oh that's right”) that a speaker may use when they hear their recipient's answer to their question. Through ai nii(n), the speaker claims that she actually already had independent access to the information requested—but did not remember it until hearing the answer. The article will show that these claims of only-now-remembering are used as accounts for asking (what turn out to be) inapposite questions.
Discourse Processes, Nov 4, 2014
This article discusses the use of the Finnish change-of-state token aa that has previously not be... more This article discusses the use of the Finnish change-of-state token aa that has previously not been identified. The central claim is that even though aa indicates a cognitive shift experienced by the speaker, it does not function as a receipt of new information. Instead, the token aa indicates that the speaker understands here and now something relevant that conflicts with his or her previous assumptions or that was otherwise unclear. Indicating now-understanding becomes relevant when the speaker's prior misunderstanding gets corrected by the recipient and in situations where the speaker first fails to understand something and reveals it by initiating repair. This article demonstrates that claiming now-understanding with aa in these contexts functions as a sign of problem resolution that enables sequence closure and resumption of the main line of talk. The article also discusses the prosodic variation of the token aa. This study contributes to research on change-of-state tokens and their epistemics in different languages.
Journal of Pragmatics, Aug 1, 2012
This article describes the regularities in the use of the Finnish conjunctions ja ('and') and mut... more This article describes the regularities in the use of the Finnish conjunctions ja ('and') and mutta ('but') as turn-final particles in ordinary conversation. The data is analyzed using conversation analytic and interactional linguistic methods. The basic observation discussed in this article is that as final particles, the words ja and mutta recurrently occur as parts of fixed, two-part discourse patterns. In the case of ja ('and'), the discourse pattern consists of a general claim and a specifying list that ends in ja. This list-final ja implies that the list is not exhaustive but only exemplifies the earlier claim. On the other hand, mutta ('but') occurs at the end of the concessive turns that are used to retract some earlier claim by the same speaker. By using the turn-final mutta, the speaker implies that the earlier claim still holds-despite the retraction. This paper argues that the identification of the recurrent discourse patterns helps to explain the functions and the recognizability of conjunctions as final particles. The discourse patterns described in the article may be seen as reduced versions of highly predictable, larger patterns in which the obvious continuation is left implicit, with the conjunction occurring in final position.
Studies in language and social interaction, 2011
... and actional characteristics of Finnish että-clauses earlier studies done on final or stand... more ... and actional characteristics of Finnish että-clauses earlier studies done on final or stand-alone conjunctions in ... Also in terms of the sequential placement in the on-going action, the turn can be ... She asks whether the client is planning to attend the local rock festival (line 2). (4 ...
Pragmatics & beyond, 2014
This article presents an analysis of Finnish utterances that end in the conjunction etta during c... more This article presents an analysis of Finnish utterances that end in the conjunction etta during conversational talk. Traditionally known as a complementizer, etta is the equivalent to the English subordinating conjunction that. Thus, a linguistic unit that ends in etta could be interpreted as being incomplete or as projecting a complement clause to follow. However, this study argues that some etta-final utterances can be analyzed as being complete. Several arguments will be offered to support this claim. For example, syntactically, these utterances contain neither complement-taking predicates nor other complement-taking constructions that are associated with the conjunction etta. This can be assumed to indicate that etta does not function as a complementizer, but rather as a syntactically more independent particle that does not project a specific type of continuation. This claim is supported by the fact that other languages have conjunctions that are also developing uses as final particles. This analysis adopts the methodology and theoretical insights of conversation analysis and interactional linguistics.
Discourse Studies, Apr 28, 2019
Virittäjä, Dec 9, 2011
Goes without saying? Finnish conjunctions ja, mutta and että in turn-final position
Research on Language and Social Interaction, Oct 2, 2015
This article discusses the use of the Finnish particle aijaa in responding to informings. As a ne... more This article discusses the use of the Finnish particle aijaa in responding to informings. As a news receipt, aijaa is neutral in the sense that it does not display affect nor explicitly topicalize the prior talk. However, it is not closing implicative either but can be followed by further talk by the informer. The article focuses on how the “neutrality” and sequential ambiguity of the particle are manifested in different stages of a news delivery. It will be shown that aijaa is an adequate response to initial announcements but nonaffiliative and thus insufficient when responding to possibly complete, valenced tellings. The data are in Finnish with English translation.
Dialogue studies, Jan 19, 2017
Journal of Pragmatics, Oct 1, 2016
Handbook of pragmatics online, Nov 20, 2020
International journal of literary linguistics, May 17, 2016
This article analyzes the dynamics of fictional dialogue in three short stories by the Finnish au... more This article analyzes the dynamics of fictional dialogue in three short stories by the Finnish author Rosa Liksom. These stories are constructed almost entirely of dialogue, with minimal involvement on the part of the narrator. We adopt two different approaches to dialogue. First, we analyze dialogue from a micro level, as interaction between the characters within the storyworlds, then from a more holistic perspective, paying attention to how dialogue contributes to the rhetorical structure and ethical interpretation of the stories. We show that resorting mainly to dialogue as a narrative mode works as a way of depicting tensions between Liksom's characters, and between them and the surrounding fictional world. This, in turn, engages the reader in an interpretative process to understand the story's logic both within the fictional worlds and on the level of communication between the implied author and the authorial audience.
John Benjamins Publishing Company eBooks, Mar 15, 2021
Journal of Pragmatics, Oct 1, 2016
This paper compares two Finnish change-of-state tokens, aijaa and aha, that share the same basic ... more This paper compares two Finnish change-of-state tokens, aijaa and aha, that share the same basic epistemic meaning: they treat the prior talk as new information. It will be shown that they differ with respect to what status they assign to the prior informing in the larger activity context and the import of the informing for the particle speaker's project. That is, aijaa treats the prior informing as newsworthy and thus worthy of further discussion, whereas aha receives informings that redirect the ongoing talk in a way that has consequences for the aha speaker's project and thus requires reorientation. The general aim of the paper is to identify relevant parameters for distinguishing between change-of-state tokens in a language that has an abundance of elements for this purpose.
Research on Language and Social Interaction, Jul 1, 2013
This article identifies a phenomenon called “the preference for remembering.” This is conversatio... more This article identifies a phenomenon called “the preference for remembering.” This is conversationalists’ orientation to their epistemic responsibilities to remember and to take into account things from the past that are relevant to the here-and-now interactional moment. The focus is on the Finnish particle cluster ai nii(n) (“oh that's right”) that a speaker may use when they hear their recipient's answer to their question. Through ai nii(n), the speaker claims that she actually already had independent access to the information requested—but did not remember it until hearing the answer. The article will show that these claims of only-now-remembering are used as accounts for asking (what turn out to be) inapposite questions.
Discourse Processes, Nov 4, 2014
This article discusses the use of the Finnish change-of-state token aa that has previously not be... more This article discusses the use of the Finnish change-of-state token aa that has previously not been identified. The central claim is that even though aa indicates a cognitive shift experienced by the speaker, it does not function as a receipt of new information. Instead, the token aa indicates that the speaker understands here and now something relevant that conflicts with his or her previous assumptions or that was otherwise unclear. Indicating now-understanding becomes relevant when the speaker's prior misunderstanding gets corrected by the recipient and in situations where the speaker first fails to understand something and reveals it by initiating repair. This article demonstrates that claiming now-understanding with aa in these contexts functions as a sign of problem resolution that enables sequence closure and resumption of the main line of talk. The article also discusses the prosodic variation of the token aa. This study contributes to research on change-of-state tokens and their epistemics in different languages.
Journal of Pragmatics, Aug 1, 2012
This article describes the regularities in the use of the Finnish conjunctions ja ('and') and mut... more This article describes the regularities in the use of the Finnish conjunctions ja ('and') and mutta ('but') as turn-final particles in ordinary conversation. The data is analyzed using conversation analytic and interactional linguistic methods. The basic observation discussed in this article is that as final particles, the words ja and mutta recurrently occur as parts of fixed, two-part discourse patterns. In the case of ja ('and'), the discourse pattern consists of a general claim and a specifying list that ends in ja. This list-final ja implies that the list is not exhaustive but only exemplifies the earlier claim. On the other hand, mutta ('but') occurs at the end of the concessive turns that are used to retract some earlier claim by the same speaker. By using the turn-final mutta, the speaker implies that the earlier claim still holds-despite the retraction. This paper argues that the identification of the recurrent discourse patterns helps to explain the functions and the recognizability of conjunctions as final particles. The discourse patterns described in the article may be seen as reduced versions of highly predictable, larger patterns in which the obvious continuation is left implicit, with the conjunction occurring in final position.
Studies in language and social interaction, 2011
... and actional characteristics of Finnish että-clauses earlier studies done on final or stand... more ... and actional characteristics of Finnish että-clauses earlier studies done on final or stand-alone conjunctions in ... Also in terms of the sequential placement in the on-going action, the turn can be ... She asks whether the client is planning to attend the local rock festival (line 2). (4 ...
Pragmatics & beyond, 2014
This article presents an analysis of Finnish utterances that end in the conjunction etta during c... more This article presents an analysis of Finnish utterances that end in the conjunction etta during conversational talk. Traditionally known as a complementizer, etta is the equivalent to the English subordinating conjunction that. Thus, a linguistic unit that ends in etta could be interpreted as being incomplete or as projecting a complement clause to follow. However, this study argues that some etta-final utterances can be analyzed as being complete. Several arguments will be offered to support this claim. For example, syntactically, these utterances contain neither complement-taking predicates nor other complement-taking constructions that are associated with the conjunction etta. This can be assumed to indicate that etta does not function as a complementizer, but rather as a syntactically more independent particle that does not project a specific type of continuation. This claim is supported by the fact that other languages have conjunctions that are also developing uses as final particles. This analysis adopts the methodology and theoretical insights of conversation analysis and interactional linguistics.
Discourse Studies, Apr 28, 2019
Virittäjä, Dec 9, 2011
Goes without saying? Finnish conjunctions ja, mutta and että in turn-final position
Research on Language and Social Interaction, Oct 2, 2015
This article discusses the use of the Finnish particle aijaa in responding to informings. As a ne... more This article discusses the use of the Finnish particle aijaa in responding to informings. As a news receipt, aijaa is neutral in the sense that it does not display affect nor explicitly topicalize the prior talk. However, it is not closing implicative either but can be followed by further talk by the informer. The article focuses on how the “neutrality” and sequential ambiguity of the particle are manifested in different stages of a news delivery. It will be shown that aijaa is an adequate response to initial announcements but nonaffiliative and thus insufficient when responding to possibly complete, valenced tellings. The data are in Finnish with English translation.
Dialogue studies, Jan 19, 2017
Journal of Pragmatics, Oct 1, 2016