Uwe-A Küttner
Biographic Data
| ID | 750990 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Uwe-A Küttner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Uwe-A |
| FAMILY NAME | Küttner |
| SIGNATURE | KUTTNER U |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leibniz Institute for the German Language |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1688-0896 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Beyond Deontic Modality
We report a study of expressions of possibility and necessity in the context of sanctioning problematic behaviour: modal sanctions. The study is comparative on two dimensions: We compare across two types of context, oriented to codified rules (playing board games) or to social norms (breakfast with the family), and across four European languages: British English, German, Italian and Polish. We find that (1) only around 16% of sanctioning attempts…
Between confrontation and mutual non-interference
The proliferation of smartphone cameras and other portable recording devices has enabled the rise of so-called 'copwatching', people filming police-citizen encounters with the primary aim of increasing police accountability. Interactions between copwatchers and police officers generally take place under conditions of mutual mistrust and regularly lead to heated arguments over the recording activity and its precise modalities. Using conversation a…
Request for confirmation sequences in British and American English
This article presents the quantitative findings from a comparative study of request for confirmation (RfC) sequences in British English (BE) and American English (AE). The study is part of a large-scale cross-linguistic research project on RfCs in ten languages. RfCs put forward a proposition about which the speaker claims some knowledge but for which they seek (dis)confirmation from an informed co-participant. The article examines linguistic res…
When excuse me means excuse you
This article examines the use of excuse me as a practice for invoking the complainability of another person’s conduct in the service of sanctioning it as mis conduct. It explores how a form that semantically expresses its speaker’s desire to be excused ( excuse me ) can be used to flag another person’s doings as transgressive or untoward. It is proposed that, to elucidate this puzzle, it is necessary to adopt a more holistic perspective and to in…
Affordances and Actions
This article examines how requests for confirmation (RfCs) can be used as devices for challenging or disagreeing with another participant, their talk, or their action(s) in informal interaction. Based on their defining pragmatic characteristics, we identify two generic interactional affordances RfCs offer their speakers: (1) a capacity to do questioning and (2) a capacity to forward propositional content. While these two affordances are generally…
Invoking Rules in Everyday Family Interactions
In this article we examine moments in which parents or other caregivers overtly invoke rules during episodes in which they take issue with, intervene against, and try to change a child’s ongoing behavior or action(s). Drawing on interactional data from four different languages (English, Finnish, German, Polish) and using Conversation Analytic methods, we first illustrate the variety of ways in which parents may use such overt rule invocations as …
Offering an Interpretation of Prior Talk in Everyday Interaction
Sometimes in interaction, a speaker articulates an overt interpretation of prior talk. Such moments have been studied as involving the repair of a problem with the other’s talk or as formulating an understanding of the matter at hand. Stepping back from the established notions of formulations and repair, we examine the variety of actions speakers do with the practice of offering an interpretation, and the order within this domain. Results show ha…
Pivots revisited
The term “pivot” usually refers to two overlapping syntactic units such that the completion of the first unit simultaneously launches the second. In addition, pivots are generally said to be characterized by the smooth prosodic integration of their syntactic parts. This prosodic integration is typically achieved by prosodic-phonetic matching of the pivot components. As research on such turns in a range of languages has illustrated, speakers routi…
Tying Sequences Together with the [ That’s + Wh -Clause] Format
This article explores a sequence organizational phenomenon that results from the use of a loosely specifiable turn format (viz., That's + wh-clause) for launching (next) sequences while at the same time connecting back to a prior turn. Using this practice creates a sequential juncture, i.e., a pivot-like nexus between one sequence and a next. In third position, such junctures serve to accomplish seamless sequential transitions from one sequence i…
Investigating Inferences in Sequences of Action
This paper offers an exploratory Interactional Linguistic account of the role that inferences play in episodes of ordinary conversational interaction. To this end, it systematically reconsiders the conversational practice of using the lexico-syntactic format oh that’s right to implicitly claim “just-now” recollection of something previously known, but momentarily confused or forgotten. The analyses reveal that this practice typically occurs as pa…
Invoking Rules in Everyday Family Interactions
In this article we examine moments in which parents or other caregivers overtly invoke rules during episodes in which they take issue with, intervene against, and try to change a child’s ongoing behavior or action(s). Drawing on interactional data from four different languages (English, Finnish, German, Polish) and using Conversation Analytic methods, we first illustrate the variety of ways in which parents may use such overt rule invocations as …
Tying Sequences Together with the [ That’s + Wh -Clause] Format
This article explores a sequence organizational phenomenon that results from the use of a loosely specifiable turn format (viz., That's + wh-clause) for launching (next) sequences while at the same time connecting back to a prior turn. Using this practice creates a sequential juncture, i.e., a pivot-like nexus between one sequence and a next. In third position, such junctures serve to accomplish seamless sequential transitions from one sequence i…
Offering an Interpretation of Prior Talk in Everyday Interaction
Sometimes in interaction, a speaker articulates an overt interpretation of prior talk. Such moments have been studied as involving the repair of a problem with the other’s talk or as formulating an understanding of the matter at hand. Stepping back from the established notions of formulations and repair, we examine the variety of actions speakers do with the practice of offering an interpretation, and the order within this domain. Results show ha…
Between confrontation and mutual non-interference
The proliferation of smartphone cameras and other portable recording devices has enabled the rise of so-called 'copwatching', people filming police-citizen encounters with the primary aim of increasing police accountability. Interactions between copwatchers and police officers generally take place under conditions of mutual mistrust and regularly lead to heated arguments over the recording activity and its precise modalities. Using conversation a…
Investigating Inferences in Sequences of Action
This paper offers an exploratory Interactional Linguistic account of the role that inferences play in episodes of ordinary conversational interaction. To this end, it systematically reconsiders the conversational practice of using the lexico-syntactic format oh that’s right to implicitly claim “just-now” recollection of something previously known, but momentarily confused or forgotten. The analyses reveal that this practice typically occurs as pa…
Tying Sequences Together with the [ That’s + Wh -Clause] Format
This article explores a sequence organizational phenomenon that results from the use of a loosely specifiable turn format (viz., That's + wh-clause) for launching (next) sequences while at the same time connecting back to a prior turn. Using this practice creates a sequential juncture, i.e., a pivot-like nexus between one sequence and a next. In third position, such junctures serve to accomplish seamless sequential transitions from one sequence i…
Pivots revisited
The term “pivot” usually refers to two overlapping syntactic units such that the completion of the first unit simultaneously launches the second. In addition, pivots are generally said to be characterized by the smooth prosodic integration of their syntactic parts. This prosodic integration is typically achieved by prosodic-phonetic matching of the pivot components. As research on such turns in a range of languages has illustrated, speakers routi…
Invoking Rules in Everyday Family Interactions
In this article we examine moments in which parents or other caregivers overtly invoke rules during episodes in which they take issue with, intervene against, and try to change a child’s ongoing behavior or action(s). Drawing on interactional data from four different languages (English, Finnish, German, Polish) and using Conversation Analytic methods, we first illustrate the variety of ways in which parents may use such overt rule invocations as …
Offering an Interpretation of Prior Talk in Everyday Interaction
Sometimes in interaction, a speaker articulates an overt interpretation of prior talk. Such moments have been studied as involving the repair of a problem with the other’s talk or as formulating an understanding of the matter at hand. Stepping back from the established notions of formulations and repair, we examine the variety of actions speakers do with the practice of offering an interpretation, and the order within this domain. Results show ha…
Affordances and Actions
This article examines how requests for confirmation (RfCs) can be used as devices for challenging or disagreeing with another participant, their talk, or their action(s) in informal interaction. Based on their defining pragmatic characteristics, we identify two generic interactional affordances RfCs offer their speakers: (1) a capacity to do questioning and (2) a capacity to forward propositional content. While these two affordances are generally…
Request for confirmation sequences in British and American English
This article presents the quantitative findings from a comparative study of request for confirmation (RfC) sequences in British English (BE) and American English (AE). The study is part of a large-scale cross-linguistic research project on RfCs in ten languages. RfCs put forward a proposition about which the speaker claims some knowledge but for which they seek (dis)confirmation from an informed co-participant. The article examines linguistic res…
When excuse me means excuse you
This article examines the use of excuse me as a practice for invoking the complainability of another person’s conduct in the service of sanctioning it as mis conduct. It explores how a form that semantically expresses its speaker’s desire to be excused ( excuse me ) can be used to flag another person’s doings as transgressive or untoward. It is proposed that, to elucidate this puzzle, it is necessary to adopt a more holistic perspective and to in…
Between confrontation and mutual non-interference
The proliferation of smartphone cameras and other portable recording devices has enabled the rise of so-called 'copwatching', people filming police-citizen encounters with the primary aim of increasing police accountability. Interactions between copwatchers and police officers generally take place under conditions of mutual mistrust and regularly lead to heated arguments over the recording activity and its precise modalities. Using conversation a…
Beyond Deontic Modality
We report a study of expressions of possibility and necessity in the context of sanctioning problematic behaviour: modal sanctions. The study is comparative on two dimensions: We compare across two types of context, oriented to codified rules (playing board games) or to social norms (breakfast with the family), and across four European languages: British English, German, Italian and Polish. We find that (1) only around 16% of sanctioning attempts…
Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Linguistics (6 works) · Conversation (5 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (5 works) · Action (physics (4 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Communication (4 works) · Conversation analysis (4 works)