Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31724/rihjj.48.2.4
Forms of Syntactic and Semantic Adaptation to the Newly Risen Informedness of Speakers in Conversations in the Croatian Language
Dario Marić
orcid.org/0000-0003-3133-054X
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Sarajevu
Abstract
Conversational language use is characterised by more frequent verbal interventions than is the case in monologic language uses, the intent of the interventions being to revise one’s own utterances, complement them or accompany them by appropriate utterances, or to react verbally to the initial utterance of the interlocutor. Such frequent interventions result in occasional shorter-length utterances in conversations. Other quite frequent features in conversations include emptying of the meaning of initial or ending parts of utterances and linguistic simplifications achieved by using less specific relational elements. One of the reasons for all the above-mentioned characteristics of conversational language is the emergence of the process of information creation and the resulting need to make new verbal moves at any moment of oneʼs own turn. The reasons certainly also relate to language processing, which is not instantaneous but requires some time, and in claiming the right by all interlocutors to assume the role of a speaker in the conversation, which reaches its peak immediately after complete meaningful, linguistic, functional, and melodic utterances, or a sequence of utterances.The corpus of this research comprises Croatian Radio’s phone-in radio shows broadcast during the last decade and lasting approximately ten hours in total. The goal of the research is to single out both syntactic and semantic structures that are inherent exclusively to the conversational use of the Croatian language. After listening to the conversations, recording them, and performing the qualitative analysis of sequences in the conversations, the following features were singled out: apo koinou constructions, subsequent additions to sentences, free-standing topics, other examples of syntactic fragmentation of conversations, examples of linguistic simplification, examples of “last minute” questions, and examples of semantic emptying of initial or ending parts of utterances.
Keywords
Croatian spoken language; syntax and semantics of conversation; emergence of information creation in spontaneous conversations
Hrčak ID:
299222
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2022.
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