Ebook: A sequential analysis of nú and núna in Icelandic conversation

Helsinki: Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literature, University of Helsinki, 2007. - 352 p.This thesis is an empirical study of how two words in Icelandic, nú and núna, are used in contemporary Icelandic conversation. Aims in this study are, first, to explain the differences between the temporal functions of nú and núna, and, second, to describe the non-temporal functions of nú. In the analysis, a focus is placed on comparing the sequential placement of the two words, on their syntactical distribution, and on their prosodic realization.The empirical data comprise 14 hours and 11 minutes of naturally occurring conversation recorded between 1996 and 2003. The selected conversations represent a wide range of interactional contexts including informal dinner parties, institutional and non-institutional telephone conversations, radio programs for teenagers, phone-in programs, and, finally, a political debate on television. The theoretical and methodological framework is interactional linguistics, which can be described as linguistically oriented conversation analysis (CA).