Hebrew clicks: From the periphery of language to the heart of grammar

Abstract

As in most other languages, clicks in Hebrew are not phonemes but still occur very frequently in speech. This Interactional Linguistic study, based on a corpus of casual Hebrew conversation, explores clicks at discourse unit junctures – prefacing topics, sequences, and their parts. We argue that the function of such clicks is best understood through Goffman's notion of ‘frame shifts,’ signalling changes in footing. Some frame-shifting clicks are byproducts of swallowing and breathing; at the same time, we show that click use is regular in certain contexts and interactionally significant, and that such clicks qualify as discourse markers. The tension between being non-linguistic epiphenomena and having a syntactic status is what makes frame-shifting clicks ‘liminal signs.’ Finally, we hypothesize that frame-shifting clicks are explainable as the result of a reanalysis in specific bridging contexts, whereby clicks-as-byproducts are conventionalized into discourse markers. This process may explain why non-phonemic clicks are so widespread across the world, and it may serve as a starting point for describing the development of additional interactional functions of clicks.