This book takes an interactional linguistic perspective on single-syllable affect markers, or “sound objects” in English. The nine chapters that make up the bulk of the work are divided into a background section (Chs. 1–4) and an analysis section (Chs. 5–9), bookended by an introduction and a conclusion.
Ch. 1, which begins the background section, explains the study's methodology. Interactional linguistics draws from the fields of linguistics, sociology, and linguistic anthropology to merge linguistic description, talk-in-interaction conversation analysis, and the participant sense-making of contextualization theory. Ch. 2 considers the general definition of sound objects and their role in language. Sound objects lack referential function but play a role in organizing conversational interactions as well as signaling affective/cognitive states or processes. Ch. 3 discusses previous studies relating prosody to affectivity in conversation, and Ch. 4 describes various types of interaction sequences used in the analysis. These include “troubles talk,” news delivery sequences, complaint sequences, assessments, and repair.
Chs. 5–9 form the centerpiece of Reber's work; they focus on analysis of particular sound objects, using examples from a data set of sixteen hours of natural conversation in British English, including telephone interactions, radio phone-ins, and face-to-face family interactions. Ch. 5 provides information on the data set and transcription methods. Subsequent chapters in this section begin with a consideration of previous literature on the selected sound objects, including dictionary definitions and interactional studies that emphasize affect perception. For each sound object, Reber describes the prosodic-phonetic packaging, then provides conversation excerpts to exemplify usage. A line-by-line interactive conversational analysis is used to contextually situate sound objects and draw attention to their conversational function. Figures showing wave form and pitch contours demonstrate the prosodic contours of sound objects sampled from contextually situated speech. In many cases, rhythmic analysis of excerpts is also shown, to emphasize the positioning of sound objects.
Ch. 6 analyses examples of oh with “high and pointed” prosody as a performance of surprise in repair sequences and news telling. Ch. 7 focuses on three distinct prosodic-phonetic packagings of ooh responses in radio phone-ins and troubles talk or complaint sequences. Ch. 8 analyzes the use of ah in responses to troubles talk or bad news, considering the difference between self- and other- directed affect. Ch. 9 briefly considers clicks and whistles as affect-laden sound objects external to standard British English phonemics. Reber concludes with a number of methodological and theoretical insights, emphasizing how sequential and prosodic aspects of sound objects create affect. She also considers the effect of referential vagueness on affective accountability, “pro forma” displays of affect, and nonaffect laden sound objects.
This book presents a wealth of detail on nonreferential affect markers in English and encourages further analysis of the relationship between affect and sound objects.
