Intonation and sequential organization: Formulations in French talk-in-interaction

• The paper investigates formulations in French talk-in-interaction.
• Two formulation-type practices are identified.
• The two types differ in prosody, next-turn treatment and sequential location.
• Prosody can be understood as shaped by and within sequential-interactional structure.

This paper contributes to the study of the interactional functions of so-called formulations, while at the same time proposing an account for variability in phonetic design with reference to the observable interactional and sequential structure of talk. Two types of formulations are identified: final rise formulations and rise–fall formulations. The two categories differ in terms of intonational form as well as next-turn treatment and sequential location. While final rise formulations are used to solicit elaborate confirmations, rise–fall confirmations are responded to with mere confirmation. The two types of formulations can be described as projecting expansion relevance and closing relevance, respectively. The categorization is empirically warranted by means of participant orientation in both typical and deviant cases, demonstrating the robustness of the phenomena. The paper argues that linguistic design is inextricably linked to interactional functions, and that the former cannot be fully understood without consideration of the latter.