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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
This chapter focuses on two markers whose literal meanings directly influence their discourse use. Y'know marks transitions in information state which are relevant for participation frameworks, and I mean marks speaker orientation toward own talk, i.e. modification of ideas and intentions. Both markers also have uses which are less directly related to their literal meanings: y'know gains attention from the hearer to open an interactive focus on speaker-provided information and I mean maintains attention on the speaker. I consider these markers together not only because use of both is based on semantic meaning, but because their functions are complementary and because both are socially sanctioned (9.3).
Y'know
Y'know functions within the information state of talk. As I stated in Chapter 1, information states are formed as participants' knowledge and meta-knowledge about the world is redistributed through talk, as different bits of information become more or less salient, and as knowledge about information becomes more or less certain. Although they are initially cognitive in focus, information states have pragmatic relevance since it is through verbal interaction that information state transitions are negotiated and displayed.
Y'know in information states
The literal meaning of the expression ‘you know’ suggests the function of y'know in information states. You is a second person pronoun (singular or plural) and it is also used as an indefinite general pronoun similar to one (or in some of its uses, they); know refers to the cognitive state in which one ‘has information about something’.
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