Acceptance and resistance: an analysis of <em>ah</em> and <em>ay</em> as indicators of change of state

Abstract

The present investigation applies a conversation-analytic approach to the study of the linguistic particles ah and ay in naturally occurring interaction. The particles are analysed from a corpus of Mexican Spanish interactions. Ah and ay are defined as change-of-state tokens, ah and ay show acceptance or resistance to the previous stretch of conversation. Ah is examined in post informing sequences and it is argued that it initiates a preamble for a following action. It is also illustrated how speakers treat informing turns differently depending on the knowledge they have shown in the previous interaction. Ay is also analysed in informing contexts where it displays surprise. It is argued that the degree of surprise displayed with ay is greater than the one displayed with ah. Ay is also used to initiate the repair of a previous turn. Ay can mark inapposite talk, indicating that the information conveyed by the previous conversation stretch should have been taken for granted.

Original received: 2015/05/06

Review sent to author: 2015/07/28

Accepted: 2016/05/06