Clicks as resources in the organization of responsive actions in Syrian Arabic interaction

Over the past decade, a growing body of research has examined clicks as socially meaningful resources, with particular focus on their use in Germanic and Romance languages. By contrast, clicks in Semitic languages have remained largely unexplored. Drawing on the framework of Interactional Linguistics, this paper presents the first empirical study of responsive clicks in Syrian Arabic. It contributes to existing research by demonstrating that clicks, deployed as single or multiple response tokens, are used to accomplish the social actions of disconfirmation, disaffiliation, and rejection in Arabic interaction. Moreover, clicks as prefatory elements are shown to be part of less resisting responsive actions like ʔē bass ‘yes but’-initiated concessives and marked agreements or confirmations. Our analysis thus underscores the need to conceptualize clicks as mapping onto a spectrum from disaffiliation/disalignment to affiliation/alignment in Syrian Arabic talk-in-interaction, thereby contributing to a more nuanced understanding of clicks and their sequential embedding. Finally, we propose a theoretical pragmaticalization pathway in which clicks develop from stand-alone responsive elements into more integrated prefatory devices. • Study on clicks as part of (un)cooperative responsive behavior in Syrian Arabic. • Clicks map onto a spectrum from disaffiliation/disalignment to affiliation/alignment. • Clicks as response tokens counter prior challenges in non-minimal post-expansions. • The data provide evidence for clicks in marked affiliative and confirmatory actions. • The study argues that clicks develop from response tokens to discourse markers.