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Topic management

118e

Vocatives also function similarly to some discourse markers (

Û

106

). They mark

the way in which a topic is managed between speakers in so far as they occur at

boundaries where topics are launched, expanded, shifted, changed or closed. As

part of the management of a topic, speakers may name another conversational

participant in order to validate or confirm an assertion:

The + sign indicates an interrupted turn which continues at the next + sign

[the speakers are discussing A’s deceased mother; a Geordie accent is the

accent associated with the area of Newcastle in north-east England]

A: And she said when she came down here to Bristol she er she had a Geordie

accent and all the kids used to+

B: Well she would have.

A: +make fun of her.

B: She would have.

A: Yeah.

B: Of course.

A: Where were you born then, Mary?

B: In Bristol.

A: You’re a Bristol girl.

B: Yeah.

(Mary is already the addressee; the vocative coincides with a topic shift)