Aino Koivisto

Displaying Now-Understanding: The Finnish Change-of-State Token aa

This article discusses the use of the Finnish change-of-state token aa that has previously not been identified. The central claim is that even though aa indicates a cognitive shift experienced by the speaker, it does not function as a receipt of new information. Instead, the token aa indicates that the speaker understands here and now something relevant that conflicts with his or her previous assumptions or that was otherwise unclear. Indicating now-understanding becomes relevant when the speakers prior misunderstanding gets corrected by the recipient and in situations where the speaker first fails to understand something and reveals it by initiating repair. This article demonstrates that claiming now-understanding with aa in these contexts functions as a sign of problem resolution that enables sequence closure and resumption of the main line of talk. The article also discusses the prosodic variation of the token aa. This study contributes to research on change-of-state tokens and their epistemics in different languages.

Dealing with Ambiguities in Informings: Finnish Aijaa as a “Neutral” News Receipt

This article discusses the use of the Finnish particle aijaa in responding to informings. As a news receipt, aijaa is neutral in the sense that it does not display affect nor explicitly topicalize the prior talk. However, it is not closing implicative either but can be followed by further talk by the informer. The article focuses on how the “neutrality” and sequential ambiguity of the particle are manifested in different stages of a news delivery. It will be shown that aijaa is an adequate response to initial announcements but nonaffiliative and thus insufficient when responding to possibly complete, valenced tellings. The data are in Finnish with English translation.

Responding to What Is Left Implicit: Psychotherapists’ Formulations and Understanding Checks After Clients’ Turn-Final Että (“That/So”)

ABSTRACT This article examines a specific linguistic practice in psychotherapy in Finnish: ending a turn at talk with että (“that” or “so”). Making että the final item leaves some aspect of the turn implicit and invites the recipient somehow to deal with that implication. This happens in everyday interactions generally. However, whereas in everyday conversation the recipient usually does not explicate the implicit content of the turn, in psychotherapy the therapist may draw out different aspects of the implicit content and offer it to the client for confirmation. We will show that these practices are in service of addressing the problematic contents in the client’s telling and in managing resistance. We argue that the ways in which therapists depart from the practices of everyday conversation to deal with the implicit can be seen as institutionally specific means of working with previously avoided themes and integrating them to the client’s self. Data are in Finnish with English translation.