Listen: Sequenzielle und prosodische Struktur einer kommunikativen Praktik – eine Untersuchung im Rahmen der Interaktionalen Linguistik

Abstract I describe the construction of lists in my corpus of conversations in, mostly, Northern Standard German. With respect to the general structure of listing and lists, I will show the following points: (i) Listing is always an embedded practice; lists are normally middle parts of a larger three-component structure that consists of (a) the projection component, projecting more-to-come, i. e. a multiunit turn to be constructed, either a pre-detailing and/or a general formulation; (b) the list itself, preferably three-parted, suggesting the items as part of either a closed or an open number of list items, as a practice of detailing; (c) the gestalt closure, i. e. a post-detailing component, completing the structure around the list. (ii) We should distinguish between (a) closed lists that suggest a closed number of items, and (b) open lists that suggest an open number of items. These classes of lists are produced with different kinds of practices. It seems to be the prosody that is used to suggest the intended kind of list, irrespective of its syntactic embedding. (iii) Lists may be produced with different kinds of, albeit similar, intonation contours. But it is not so much the particular intonation contour that is constitutive of lists, but a variety of similar contours plus the repetition of the chosen contour for at least some or even all of the list items. Furthermore, intonation is deployed to suggest the interpretation of a potential final list item as either a list completer or as another item of the list with some kind of gestalt closure still to come. I will show that intonation is indeed one of the methodically used constitutive cues that makes the production and structuring of lists recognizable for recipients.