At the Interface of Grammar and the Body: Chais pas (“dunno”) as a Resource for Dealing with Lack of Recipient Response

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines speakers’ use of French chais pas (“dunno”) when they find that their sequence-initial turn has not been responded to by their recipient (roughly: Speaker A: Maybe they’re doing a master’s degree; Speaker B: [no response]; Speaker A: Dunno). Two interactional workings are documented in this precise sequential location: Speakers use chais pas either for withdrawing their just-produced sequence-initial action, thereby canceling the relevance of a response or, on the contrary, for pursuing response while relaxing the preference for a precise type of response. Collection-based analysis shows that these uses differ in their embodied delivery, implementing distinct interactional workings with distinct sequential consequentialities. The findings add to our understanding of how grammar and the body interface in the course of the real-time production of turns and actions and provide evidence for the online malleability of action projection. Data are in French with English translations.