Interactional Linguistics - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2026

In this paper, we analyze sequences of proposals for joint future action in German conversations, with the aim of capturing participants’ orientations towards conditional relevance (CR). We establish a data-driven operationalization of CR on the basis of different design-features of the proposals such as interrogativity, modal verbs (wollen, sollen, können), modal particles, and inbreath as well as by including contextual features, such as repetition of the proposal and gaze towards recipient(s). The responses to the proposals are categorized in terms of their type-fittedness related to approval/rejection. Our analysis confirms the view of CR as a scalar variable in proposal sequences. We show that the integration of accountability of proposal design and type-fittedness of responses is well suited to explaining variation in interlocutors’ orientations towards conditional relevance in addition to relating response mobilizing features to the presence or absence of a response.

This paper investigates the phonetic and social organisation of laughter in spoken conversation.

Building on conversation analytic research that highlights laughter as a complex interactional achievement, we examine the phonetic details of laughter in recordings of English, Spanish, and Finnish conversations, and how participants use these details to manage its unfolding in real time.

Our analysis details the internal structure of laughter bouts, including the initiating pulse, exhalation sequence, glottal reset, and final inhalation. We demonstrate phonetic differences between the phases of laughter, and how participants use these details of production to coordinate laughter with each other and with surrounding talk.

Our findings contribute to a more detailed understanding of the phonetic organisation of laughter and its role in the management of social interaction.

Honh is a pervasive particle in Taiwan Mandarin interaction. While prior pragmatic research has identified honh as “signaling negotiation invitation” (Li 1999, p. 90) in Taiwanese Southern Min and Hakka, its specific interactional functions in Taiwan Mandarin remain underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the interactional imports of honh in Taiwan Mandarin instructional settings.

Using conversation analysis (CA; Sacks et al. 1974) and interactional linguistics (IL; Couper-Kuhlen & Selting 2018; Selting & Couper-Kuhlen 2001), we analyzed 15.5 hours of video-recorded interactions from a self-discovery art facilitator training workshop and a cooking class. While honh is found to exhibit a multitude of interactional functions, in this paper, we focus particularly on how it is used as an emphatic device in reformulated or repeated instructions (45 cases).

Findings reveal teachers predominantly attach honh to reformulated elements in TCU-final or TCU-independent positions to emphasize a prior instructional point (31 cases), while 14 cases occur in repeated instructions when an important pedagogical point is first introduced. Accompanying embodiment (e.g., raising eyebrows or pointing to relevant objects) further contributes to highlighting the honh-marked points as pedagogically salient. Through detailing the multimodal practices and sequential organization of honh, our findings expand the limited literature on Taiwan Mandarin particles.

This study examines the use of en fait by second language (L2) French speakers as a resource for initiating answers in interaction. Drawing on a longitudinal video-recorded corpus (‘Pauscaf-L2’) and using the tools of Conversation Analysis, the study investigates the developmental trajectory of en fait across proficiency levels in L2. The analysis reveals three main functions emerging over time: At the A2 level, en fait is used to initiate transformative answers; at the B1 level, it emerges as a resource to manage delayed responses; and at the B2 level, it becomes a frequent resource to preface non-straightforward answers (i.e., responses that are sequentially more complex, including prefaces, accounts, and taking the form of multi-unit turns), thus playing an important role in projection. This study thus sheds light on the use of en fait in L2 interaction and contributes to our understanding of how linguistic and multimodal resources develop over time to support the development of interactional competence in L2.