E anche -prefaced other-expansions in multi-person interaction

Abstract

This chapter investigates a practice used in Italian talk-in-interaction, whereby a speaker self-selects and expands the prior speaker’s talk with a grammatically dependent turn prefaced by e anche ‘and also’. The practice is used either to affiliate or disaffiliate with prior talk, and occurs in different gaze constellations: (1) a speaker may gaze at the prior speaker and subsequently initiate an e anche-prefaced other-expansion, thus receiving the prior speaker’s gaze; (2) speakers may establish mutual gaze before, or precisely at the moment at which the other-expansion is articulated. Such gaze behavior is sensitive to the action speakers accomplish. This chapter offers advances in Interactional Linguistics by examining a previously neglected grammatical resource (e anche) and concomitant gaze-behavior in multi-person interaction.