Formulaicity and contexts: a multimodal analysis of the Japanese utterance-final tteyuu

Abstract

Abstract This study investigates the use of the utterance-final tteyuu [ʔtejɯː], a combination of the quotative particle tte and the verb yuu (‘say’). Although its lexicalized status and utterance-final occurrence are commonly observed, we still know little about its real-time functions. The analysis of 120 examples in varied contexts shows its general usage to clarify something expressed in the prior talk, which is a type of repair practice. More importantly, the analysis reveals how the participants’ understanding of the ongoing speech activity and multimodal cues affect its use and interpretation. Furthermore, some specialized usages appear to motivate activity-bound pragmatic inferencing, leading to emergence of a new construction. The findings demonstrate that even those expressions that are fixed in one context are in flux; their functions and structures are always subject to negotiation and change through frequent use in new contexts. The study contributes to the understanding of a dynamic interplay between linguistic formulaicity and contextual factors.