German oh : Marking an Emotional Change of State

Working within a conversation analytic framework, this article analyzes the use and function of oh in conversational German and compares it to ach in German and oh in English. The analysis shows that both ach and oh are change-of-state tokens like English oh, but while ach is typically used for cognitive changes of state, oh is typically used to mark affective changes of state. The emotions communicated by oh are varied, and both the phonetic realization and the sequential placement of the token contribute to its meaning. The article discusses the implications of the findings for the study of emotions and cross-cultural comparisons of tokens.