Response Cries Inviting an Alignment: Finnish huh huh

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study looks at the use of the Finnish response cry huh huh as a device to invite an alignment and to assess joint physical experience. Response cries establish a speaker’s orientation to the world, but they also give cues for the recipient on how to respond to the responsive actions appropriately. While the meaning of huh huh is unproblematic for the recipients, both speakers and recipients orient to the vagueness of huh huh through their turn design and turn formulation. Of particular interest are those rare huh huh turns that are repeated by the receiver with prosodic upgrading or downgrading compared to the initial ones. Initiating a sequence with a response cry and repeating it in the second position prove to be effective devices for the participants to maintain social solidarity in physiologically or emotionally dense moments. The data are in Finnish with English translations.