Referring to persons and groups in Gorum conversation

Felix Rau
University of Cologne

Slides: fxru.org/slides/ICAAL7/ICAA7.html

Reference in conversation

  • Project on audio recognition (overlap)
  • Backchannels
  • Virtually nothing on Austroasiatic
  • Very much work in progress

Referring

“it is the speaker who refers […]: he invests the expression with reference by the act of referring” (Lyons 1977, p. 177)

Referring to a person

Sacks & Schegloff (1979)

  1. minimization
  2. recipient design

Enfield (2013)

  1. Design the expressions for the recipient
    1. achieve recognition
    2. invoke or display relationship proximity/type
  2. Minimize the expressive means
    1. use a single reffering expression
    2. use a name rather than a description
    3. use only one name for a binomial if possible
  3. Fit the expressive format to the action being performed
  4. Observe local cultural/intitutional contraints
  5. Associate the referent explicitly with one of the speech participants

Establishing reference is interactional

LK: ʈail ɖa'd ɖabu bo̰j baro so neta̰jju nekuʔ  ‘for the tiles, I have 
                                                given twelve hundred’

    bãkita arlaŋ                               ‘no loan yet’
    sidannuʈa                                  ‘the ones from Sida’
DD:           (mm)                             ‘uh huh’
LK:            (lu)p inɖeŋolnu siɖannuʈa       ‘Sida of Upper Inɖeŋol’
DD:                                      ʔoʔo  ‘oh yes’
“In making reference […], a speaker must select from a variety of lexical and gestural possibilities. Reference is therefore a matter of selection, whether lexical or otherwise.” (Enfield 2013, p. 433)

cultural and linguistic inventory

  • pronouns
  • given names
  • nick names
  • kinship terms
  • full names
(1) no'd
    3sPRO.DIR
    ‘(s)he’

(2) subas=ɖi
    Subas=DEF
    ‘Subas’

(3) baiŋon=ɖi
    eggplant=DEF
    ‘Eggplant (a boy)’

(4) aba=niŋ
    father=1sPOSS
    ‘my father’

Reference to groups

(5) no'dgi
    3pPRO.DIR
    ‘they’

(6) miŋ=ɖu babu=ɖi
    I=and Babu=Def
    ‘me and the sir’

(7) buboŋ gutor=ɖigin
    boy girl=DEF:PL
    ‘the boys and girls’

(8) ana=niŋ=gi
    elder.brother=1sPOSS=PL
    ‘my elder brothers’

Associative Plurals

 (9) liti=n=gi 					
     Liti=DEF=PL
     ‘Liti and so’			
					
(10) amkṵj=niŋ=gi 	
     woman=1sPOSS=PL
     ‘my wife and so’
					
(11) garɖu=ɖigin=nu    as̰uŋ 
     guard=DEF:PL=ATTR house
     ‘the forest guard’s family’s house’

Backchannels

(minimal responses)

The Uh huh, Mm, Huh?, and Yeahs of the world.

* problematic term * not essentially different from other utterances * not constitute a separate channel * do not claim the floor * overlap is seemingly unproblematic
* _Continuers_ (e.g. Mm hm, Uh huh) * _Acknowledgements_ (e.g. Mm, Yeah) * _Newsmarkers_ (e.g. Really?, change-of-state token Oh, the ‘idea-connector’ Right) * _Change-of-activity tokens_ (e.g. Okay, Alright) * _Assessments_ (e.g. Great, How intriguing, 🐂💩); * _Brief questions_ (e.g. Who?, Which one?, or Huh?); * _Collaborative completions_ (“finishing each others s...”) * _sighs_, _laughter_, _nods_ etc.

minimal responses crosslinguistically

  • Are these function universal?
  • Language specific inventories?
  • Huh?

Minimal responses in Gorum

  • Continuers/ Acknowledgement: mm / ə̃
  • change-of-state/recognition: (ʔ)oʔo

Example 1

LK: gãsi tile'ɟɖi (.50) boɖnai gãsi tile'ɟɖi (.33)     ‘old man Gansi,
                                                        old man Gansi 
                                                        Bodnaik’
DD:                                                ə̃   ‘uh huh’
LK: aɖi mersa koɖkejju (olku)                          ‘he was digging up 
                                                        the chili plants’
DD:                          ə̃                          ‘uh huh’

Example 2

LK: ʈail ɖa'd ɖabu bo̰j baro so neta̰jju nekuʔ  ‘for the tiles, I have 
                                                given twelve hundred’

    bãkita arlaŋ                               ‘no loan yet’
    sidannuʈa                                  ‘the ones from Sida’
DD:           (mm)                             ‘uh huh’
LK:            (lu)p inɖeŋolnu siɖannuʈa       ‘Sida of Upper Inɖeŋol’
DD:                                      ʔoʔo  ‘oh yes’

Example 3

DD: norsiŋɖi ajtun           ‘Norsing and Aitu’
LK:                ʔo ʔo ʔo  ‘yeah!’
DD: miŋnuʈa                  ‘are mine (my Panziabai/ritual relatives)’
LK: ə̃ ə̃ ə̃ norsiŋɖi ajtun     ‘uh huh, uh huh, Norsing and Aitu’
DD: moɖun                    ‘Modu’
LK:       ə̃ ə̃                ‘uh huh’
DD: kulnan                   ‘Kulna’
LK:        ə̃                 ‘uh huh’
DD: no'dnuʈa                 ‘are his’
LK: inɖi banzaɖiginnuʈa      ‘this nephew’s household’s’
DD:                     ə̃    ‘uh huh’
LK:                        ə̃ ‘uh huh’

Example 4

LK: uɖubun kajki bileŋ lupɖinu dorrajgi    ‘yesterday, the one of our 
                                            oldest one brought tiles
                                            perhaps’
DD:                                    ə̃.ə̃ ‘uh huh’
LK: Domunu                                 ‘of Domu’
DD:        ʔo ʔo                           ‘oh yes’
LK: panongi neʔ ujjḛj dorrajgi             ‘Pano and so went and 
                                            brought some
    subasɖigin neʔ                          Subas and so’
DD:               ə̃.ə̃                      ‘uh huh’
LK: duarejjej                              ‘they moved them.’
## ... and now? * Gorum seems to be broadly in line with what we know of reference in conversation * We need a better understanding of the function of mm, ə̃, and (ʔ)oʔo * associative plurals are a fascinating window into the way social structure is negotiated * more data and more time or better tools to analyse the data

Thank you!

Contact: f.rau@uni-koeln.de

Slides: fxru.org/slides/ICAAL7/ICAA7.html