Centre for Language Discourse & Communication
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Franklin-Wilkins Building, Waterloo Bridge Wing
5.30-7.00/7.30 pm Room G/8
GRAMMAR IN TIME:
THE NON-RESTRICTIVE 'WHICH' CLAUSE AS AN
INTERACTIONAL RESOURCE
Dr Rebecca Clift
University of Essex
This paper examines the interactional implementation of the non-restrictive relative 'which'-clause.
In interaction this clause is commonly produced as an increment: that is, after a main clause has
come to prosodic completion. Such usage is commonly found to satisfy two conflicting interactional
constraints: the principles of minimisation and of progressivity. Extended examination of the
placement of this increment reveals the extent to which it is implicated in the interactional projects
of alignment and disalignment.
Rebecca Clift is a senior lecturer in Linguistics, where she teaches Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics
and Conversation Analysis. She did a PhD at Cambridge on 'Misunderstandings in Conversation'
and has researched in the field of conversation analysis ever since. She’s published work on the
discourse marker 'actually', on reported speech - a volume edited by Elizabeth Holt and herself
came out this year - and territories of knowledge in interaction. She’s particularly interested in how
grammar is fitted to the contingencies of interaction - the subject of the talk at King's!
Tea/coffee from 5.15pm
All welcome!
www.kcl.ac.uk/ldc