Role of six turn-initial demonstrative and emotive particles in Lithuanian

Abstract

The present study deals with the inventory and functional variation of six turn-initial particles in Lithuanian. The aim of the study is to identify the functions of the demonstrative turn-initial particles tai, va, and štai and the emotive particles o, nagi, and ogi in spoken discourse, namely in spontaneous private conversations, and in literary dialogues by exploring the relationship of the particles to a previous and emerging turn. The data for the study have been retrieved from the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian and from the subcorpora of spoken discourse and fiction in the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language. The most frequent turn-initial particles in spoken interactions are o, tai, and va, whereas in literary dialogues the particles nagi and ogi occur most frequently turn-initially. Both tai and va are speaker-oriented and express the speaker’s conclusion on the basis of the arguments in a previous turn, agreement or disagreement with the addressee, and elaboration of information. The particle o is addressee-oriented, since it frames the speaker’s question and emphasises the intention to elicit an answer from the addressee. Nagi and ogi tend to occur in directives or emphatic responses and are speaker-oriented in a similar way to tai and va.