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Negative polar particles have generally been characterized as items for expressing disagreement or responding negatively to polar questions. What has been lacking in these accounts is attention to embodied activities. This paper studies the usage of the Estonian negative particle ei as a preface in real-time activities, showing that it halts the ongoing action, often for the sake of achieving intersubjective understanding and establishing epistemic authority. The paper shows how other matters besides logic and truth-conditions define the meaning of the negative particle. Analysis of linguistic function demands transgressing the boundaries of language and scrutiny of co-present interaction in its temporal emergence. The paper argues that several discourse functions of ei are also more accurately described from the vantage point of its usage in multimodal face-to-face settings than from the logical properties that the item happens to display in limited sequential contexts after yes/no interrogatives.

Cataphoric pronouns have been characterized as being co-referential with a word that comes later. Considering that talk is produced in real time, with little benefit of knowing what is yet to come, participants understand cataphoric pro-forms to be projecting more talk. Projection is a crucial interactive resource, as it enables speakers to align with the ongoing talk and to initiate subsequent contributions in a timely manner. The study looks at how Estonian pro-forms are systematically used to project either a word (phrase) or a clause in interaction. The patterns discussed are not universal and it will be suggested that projecting word (phrases) with pro-forms is a characteristic of a non-prepositional language with no articles, and that pro-form projection can be especially useful in a free word order language. As many pro-forms do not end up with a co-referential word, projection provides a better account of their function. The paper underlines the necessity of studying grammar as a temporal phenomenon.

Social constructionist approaches underline that identity is constantly negotiated. It emerges in everyday actions and behavioral patterns, fleeting comments by the participants in the social events. Values and attitudes are promoted and confronted. This paper studies membership categorization and pragmatic code-switching in the Swedish Estonian refugee community, demonstrating the fragile balance between the ‘Estonian’ and the ‘Swedish’. The speakers orient to Estonian Estonian as the target variety, while frequently using Swedish for sense-making. The analysis is based on audio and video recordings of Swedish Estonian club activities and research interviews. 

Imperative has traditionally been treated as a grammatical feature characteristic of first pair parts in adjacency pairs, expressing orders, requests, challenges, and demands. These actions make relevant compliance as the next action. In a number of languages, however, among them in Estonian, imperative is also used in second pair parts. It occurs as a response to a proposal that is expressed in first person but implies collaboration on behalf of the recipient. As a rule, the verb from the first pair part of the adjacency pair (proposal) is repeated in the complying imperative response. The sequence proposal in 1st person – compliance in 2nd person imperative constitutes a grammatical configuration that results form the particular interactional goals of the speakers. Without taking into consideration the specifics of social actions and their sequencing the configuration is impossible to characterize, as the syntax of the proposals varies.

As an alternative to the generic response with particle jaa/jah, a verb repeat is a more independent action that enhances the social and deontic force of the answer. By complying with a verb, the speaker makes a stronger commitment to the proposed activity.

Verb repeats, albeit not in the imperative, are also possible as responses to proposals in other persons in Estonian. In addition, they occur as responses to yes/no questions. The latter pattern has been described as a typological feature in world’s languages. It seems that the possibility of imperative responses co-occurs with verb repeat responses to questions. In varieties of Estonian that have been in close contact with languages that do not reuse verbs in the same way, such as Swedish, verbs are instead replaced with ’do’ in the second pair part.

The study is based on spoken language corpora.

Two typologically different systems are used in the answer formats to yes-no questions in Estonian, particles and echo-responses. They can be implemented separately as well as in combinations with each other or other particles. The paper studies the grammatical, pragmatic and interactional factors that affect the choice of the answer format. It depends on the pragmatic focus of the question, its polarity, as well as the polarity of the answer, and the action that is carried out by the answer. At the same time, the speaker displays her understanding of the action-import of the question in the answer and may provide subtle criticism on its design. This affects the opportunities for further development of the conversation.

The usage patterns of the Estonian complementizer et in sequentially embedded actions show that it functions as an evidential particle. In oral as well as Internet interaction, clause-initial et attributes upcoming content to the previous speaker/writer and thereby incorporates another voice. Clause-combining with et is thus a common achievement of the participants performing sequenced actions in real time. The development of this complementizer and evidential from an original deictic item most probably started in reported speech, where the recurrent repetition of et may have resulted in the incorporation of the last instance into the following clause.