English zero anaphora as an interactional resource II

Abstract

This article follows up a previous study (Oh, 2005), which has investigated English speakers’ practices of employing zero anaphora (or omission of an overt reference term) in ordinary conversations, with special reference to the kind of interactional work that they accomplish by the practice. The findings of Oh (2005) have demonstrated that unlike previously-held assumptions, zero anaphora may be systematically deployed by English speakers in order to achieve certain interactional functions, for example, marking the current talk as a second or re-saying or displaying the secondary-level of the action being done by the current talk. The current article identifies three additional functions of zero anaphora, that is, resuming the prior turn-constructional unit after a parenthetical insert, marking maximum continuity, and avoiding a choice among alternative reference forms. The point is thus reasserted that zero anaphora must be regarded as a serious resource in the construction of conversational interaction by English speakers.