Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)

ÁGNES DELI Interpersonality and Textuality in Discourse

Interpersonality and Textuality in Discourse 107 The elicitative function of speaker A's utterance in extract 15 is introduced by a hypothesis (I gather

) but it is actually accomplished by the unspecific noun phrase problems. Obviously, a simple "yes", which would remove the first speaker's uncertainty, would not be a satisfactory response here; it is rather the specification of the problems that makes the second speaker's discourse act appropriate. It is the "unshared" that is lexically signalled here by the general noun problem. The General-Particular text pattern arches through the speaking turns. Speaker B gives account of the unpleasant experiences he had the night before as a response to the elicitation expressed by the reporter's hypothetical statement as well as by the unspecific noun phrase. In extract 16 the noun commitment seems to be considered as general in the context. The second speaker confirms the first speaker's hypothesis as true, and then specifies what she means by commitment. The two extracts above represent the operation of the GeneralParticular pattern occurring in conversation and working across speaking turns: GENERAL UNSPECIFIC GENERAL NOUN PHRASE A: you had problems PARTICULAR SPECIFICATION B: — we got held up for an hour at Heathrow — some of the security people thought that the Archbishop's cross was a machine gun — that Jrept us waiting A: women must have a reai commitment which, clearly, you have — you will stay at it — you will not run away and become pregnant — you will not become very emotional at every little outburst — you have to jay I've got to be tough — you have to become one of the lads Apparently, a noun phrase with a general meaning is context-sensitive and, as such, it can contribute to the elicitative force of an utterance in the initiation move. When such an unspecific discourse element is specified by the second speaker the relevance of the response is realized through the cognitive process of specification. The phenomenon is very much the same as when the elicitation is realised by a wh-question, which is also an unspecific discourse element.