Abstract

BURGOS, Félix Manuel. CO-CONSTRUCTIONS IN SPANISH: COOPERATION BY MEANS OF AN INTERRUPTION?. Forma funcion, Santaf, de Bogot, D.C. [online]. 2007, n.20, pp.13-39. ISSN 0120-338X.

This article proposes a review of the co-construction phenomena, understood as the realization of a syntactic unit throughout the contribution of two participants during a conversation. It analyzes 81 cases from Spanish casual conversations in Cali, Colombia . Taking into consideration different explanations given as causes of this phenomenon, three variables are proposed to confirm these hypotheses on the studied examples. These variables correspond to: 1. A conversational interaction perspective, where shared cognitive models by the participants are taken into account (Lerner, 1991). 2 A syntactic approximation, where the grammatical characteristics of the components are analyzed (Ford y Thompson, 1996), y 3. A prosodic approach focused in interrupted units (Helasvuo, 2004). It is proposed that the theses suggested as causes of the co-construction appearance do have incidence in the studied examples. However, it is shown that in general these units cannot be explained by an isolated cause, but for multiple factors, where syntax and prosody are combined. Finally, it is proposed that what at first sight could be considered a conflictive fact of the conversation, an interruption, is a conversational cooperation act.

Keywords : co-construction; functional linguistics; conversation; discourse analysis.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )