Giving a tone of determination: The interactional functions of nú as a tone particle in Icelandic conversation

Besides indexing the present moment, the Icelandic temporal marker nú ‘now’ has acquired other non-temporal functions. Instances of non-temporal nú which occur as integrated parts of syntax function as tone particles (or modal particles), i.e. they do not have any clear referential meaning, but modify the utterance by giving it a certain tone. The aim of the paper is to describe how the turns containing nú are constructed and in what kind of sequential environment they occur. A distinction is made between nú in the front field, on the one hand, and nú in the middle field on the other. The analysis shows that nú as a tone particle typically occurs in turns which are likely to call for a stronger affective stance than the surrounding discourse, e.g. turns that carry counter-arguments, assessments or topic-shifts. Also, I will show that the syntactic position of nú depends on what kind of work the turn is doing. Finally, I will argue that nú in the front field has a closer semantic connection to the temporal meaning of nú, and that it is perhaps therefore more limited in scope. Nú in the middle field, on the other hand, has a less restricted use.