6.2 Núna as a temporal marker
6.2.2 Núna as an expansion and independent turn
One of the most striking differences between the temporal nú and núna involves syntactic integration. While nú occurs typically in the front field, núna is typically placed in the end-field, after the object(s) and the second part of the verb. In many cases, núna is added to the turn after a possible completion, that is, as a syntactic expansion (see Chapter 4.4.3), or even as a turn of its own.
Consider (6.7), drawn from the everyday conversation Reunion. Here, the women are discussing classical music. Earlier in the conversation, Brynhildur, one of the participants, referred to a modern minimalistic composition as a piece of “classical music.” Lína objected to this loose definition and pointed out that “classical” is a very specific term which refers to a well-defined style of music. Brynhildur starts to defend herself, and there seems to be a dispute coming up. Magga makes a compromise:
(6.7) COMPOSING CLASSICAL MUSIC: Reunion (←4.6)
(M = Magga; B = Brynhildur; V = Vala; E = Erna)
1 M .mt þa er náttlega líka hægt að sem:ja eitthvað °í°
.mt it be.3 naturally also possible to compose.INF something in .mt it’s of course also possible to compose something in
2 klassískum stíl [til dæmis,]
classical style [ for example ] classical style [ for example ] 3 (E) [j↑á: ]
[PRT ] [ yes ] 4 B j↓áj↑á=
PRT yes 5 V =j↓á[:
PRT[
yea[h
→ M [n↑ún↓a.
7 (0.4)
8 (E) Er þá [ (.) veriða- ] be.3 then [ (.) be.PP+to ] Are then [ (.) people ]
9 M [Bara a þessi viss]u’ (0.8) svon formúla (.) fyrir því [ just that these certai]n (0.8) PRT formula (.) for that.DAT [ just that these particula]r (0.8) like formula (.) for that
Magga points out in the beginning of the excerpt that the term “classical music” is a stylistic term which can be used when composing music (lines 1–2). Notice her use of til dæmis ‘for instance,’ which Magga uses here to display that she is now giving an example of another way to define classical music. After backchannels from Erna, Brynhildur, and Vala (lines 3–5), Magga produces a post-possible completion formed as a syntactic expansion (line 6). This expansion consists only of the temporal marker núna, produced as a prosodically independent utterance, with a rising-falling contour.
Núna in (6.7) is syntactically and prosodically non-integrated, although it has a clear continuing intonation, and this suggests that Magga is expanding her previous turn. Hence, núna is produced as an afterthought linked to Magga’s turn in lines 1 and 2. It is as though Magga in retrospect has realized that her statement does not make clear that she is talking about present day compositions. By adding núna, she makes it explicit that she is talking about compositions which are composed nowadays. The temporal marker anchors the proposition in time and makes it more clear that this statement is relevant for the present day situation. Note that the temporal nú probably could not have appeared in the same position.
In excerpt (6.7), núna was produced by the same speaker who produced the mother utterance. Thus, núna is what could be described as a self-completed increment (cf. Lerner 2004). In the following excerpt, by contrast, núna is produced as a turn of its own. The excerpt is drawn from the phone-in program The soul of the nation. Brynjólfur is giving some background information before he starts complaining about how the government spends the taxpayers’ money:
(6.8) WATCHING THE TELEVISION: Soul 31.05.96
(M = Moderator; B = Brynjólfur, a caller)
1 B #e::::# Ég hringi núna vegna þess að ég sat fyrir framan
#e::::# I call.1 NÚNA because that that I sit.1.PT for front
#e::::# I’m calling NÚNA because I was sitting in front of
2 sjónvarpið og horfði á (0.2) tvær fréttir /Þær komu hvor television.DEF and watch.1.PT on (0.2) two news they come.3.PT each the television and watched the (0.2) news, they came one
3 á eftir annarri, on after other.F.DAT after the other
4 (0.3) 5 M m↓m 6 (0.3)
Time (s)
0 0.48764
100 150 200 300
50 500
70 7 B j↓á:
PRT yes
8 (0.4)
→ M N↓ú:na.
10 (0.6)
11 B það var °eh° í: gær í- /Nei það var í fyrradag sennilega, that be.3.PT eh in yesterday in- no it be.3.PT in day before yesterday probably it was yesterday, no it was the day before yesterday, probably
12 M j↓á PRT já
Brynjólfur introduces his topic by explaining why he is making this phone-call now:
he just saw two news stories on the television news (lines 1–3). After a brief pause, the moderator provides a continuer indexed as mm, giving Brynjólfur permission to continue his story (line 5). Instead of continuing, however, Brynjólfur only produces an affirmation which is followed by a pause (lines 7–8). The lack of uptake from Brynjólfur seems slightly odd here, but it is perhaps caused by an attempt to create suspense (cf. Auer, Couper-Kuhlen, and Müller 1999: 180). At this point, however, the moderator takes the floor before Brynjólfur and produces a turn which functions as a question consisting only of the temporal marker núna (line 9). The marker is produced as a turn beginning, and it has a falling intonation, shown in Figure 6.4:
N↓ú: na.
Figure 6.4: Fundamental frequency (f0) of line 11, excerpt (6.8)
By uttering núna in this sequential slot, the moderator is requesting that Brynjólfur either confirm that he saw the news “now, ” or else specify when it happened. Núna is thus used here as a referential index which functions as a turn of its own.
The independent nature of núna is also very clear in the following excerpt, in which the speaker adds a turn-internal increment (cf. Lerner 2004: 153) before she adds the temporal phrase which anchors an event in time. In (6.9), Steingerður, the caller, is talking about the declension of the noun peningaþvottur ‘money laundering,’
which she heard a reporter use, in her opinion, ungrammatically:
(6.9) DECLINING “MONEY LAUNDERING”: Soul 07.06.96
(M = Moderator; G = Steingerður, a caller)
1 S Þannig er að ég heyrði í (.) #í:# onum Guðna ess Halldórssyni so be.3 that I hear.1.PT VP (.) in he.DAT 1nameM PatrM
When I heard Guðni S Halldórsson
2 frá MAdr:Íd¿
from Madrid from Madrid, 3 (0.4) 4 M m↓: ↑h[m:
5 S [Af því mér finnst alveg óskap°lega [because I.DAT think.MV totally extremely
[because I think is very much
→ skemmtilegur,° (1.1) núna einhvern tímann um daginn¿ (0.2) fun.M (1.1) NÚNA some.ACC time.ACC about day.ACC.DET (0.2) fun (1.1) NÚNA sometime the other day (0.2)
7 M m↓↑:
8 S Og hann var að fjargviðrast soldið útaf (.)útaf and he be.3.PT to fuss.MV a little out of (.) out of
he was fussing a bit about (.) about
9 /<p e n i n g a /þ v æ t t i>, Á að beygja þetta orð svona, money laundering ought.3 to conjugate.INF this word that way
“money laundering,” are you supposed to conjugate this word like that?
10 Ég bara:→ .hhhhh Nú þori ég ekkert að koma með neina I PRT .hhhhh NÚ dare.1 I nothing to come with any I just- .hhhhh NÚ I don’t dare to make any
11 fullyrðingar þvía þá verða allir svo vondir út í mig?
statements because+that then become.3.PL everybody.M.PL so angry.M.PL out in I.ACC assertions, because then everybody gets so angry at me
Steingerður introduces her topic by identifying the event she wants to comment on:
she was listening to a particular radio personality give a report from abroad (lines 1–
2). After an acknowledgement token from the moderator (line 4), this background information is followed by a positive assessment: “because I think [he] is very much fun” (lines 5–6). The assessment is followed by a 1.1 second pause and a temporal phrase containing núna einhverntímann um daginn ‘sometime the other day.’ This phrase anchors the act of listening to this reporter in the recent past.
After providing the relevant background information, Steingerður continues by bringing up her actual topic, which is to ask the moderator a grammatical question (lines 8–9). Directly after posing the question, Steingerður begins a new TCU with which she shows uncertainty and hesitation and thus immediately undermines her own ability to make comments about grammar (lines 9–11). Notice also how Steingerður formulates her critique: instead of stating that the reporter was speaking ungrammatically, she poses a question about the correct form of peningaþvottur.
Directly following this question, Steingerður uses the particle, bara ‘just,’ as a hedging device. She then follows with a statement which indicates that she does not want to say anything that would cause a negative reaction from other listeners. The last comment is initiated by the tone particle nú which functions as a foregrounding device (see Chapter 7).
The hesitation and uncertainty in Steingerður’s turn may explain why she inserted the positive assessment in lines 5 and 6 before the temporal phrase containing núna.
By looking at her turn production in retrospect, it becomes apparent that the purpose of her call is to criticize the reporter, or at least to question his grammatical skills.
Thus, it seems that it is important for Steingerður to make known as early as possible her appreciation of him. This results in the temporal phrase núna einhvern tímann um daginn ‘NÚNA sometime the other day,’ which is produced disjunctly from the proposition it anchors in time.
In some cases, the turn involving an independent núna may include other grammatical categories such as adjectives. In the following excerpt, which is drawn from the everyday conversation Friends, the three women are comparing the weather in Iceland during the two previous years. Just before the excerpt begins, Sunna, who was working in northern Iceland the summer before, has been talking about the weather there and describing it as exceptionally bad.
(6.10) RAINY SUMMER: Friends
(J = Jessica; S = Sunna; N = Nanna)
1 J .h Já jájá ég man eftir því í ágúst þegar það var .h PRT PRT I remember.1.PT after that.DAT in August when it be.3.PT .h oh yeah, well I remember that in August when it was
2 rign- Það voru (.) hérna (0.6) hvað tuttugu og níu (0.5) rai- it be.3.PT (.) PRT (0.6) what twenty and nine (0.5) rai- there were (.) eh (0.6) what twenty nine (0.5)
3 rigningadagar í á[gúst¿ (0.2) eða eitthvað [svona.
rainy days in Au[gust (0.2) or something [ PRT rainy days in Au[gust (0.2) or something [ like that
4 N [tss
[INTERJ [ tss
5 S [mm ((chewing))
6 (0.5) 7 (N) þa bar[- it jus[-
it’s jus[t
8 J [Þa var .h ömurlegt °í fyrra→°
[it be.3.PT .h awful.N in last [ it was just .h awful last year
9 (0.4)
→ J /N↑ún↓a fínt, NÚNA fine.N NÚNA fine 11 (0.3)
12 S Mjö:[g fínt í ár, ver[y fine.N in year ver[y fine this year
13 J [(eiginlega) hlýtt, [ (actually) warm.N [(actually) warm
In the beginning of the excerpt, Jessica produces a duplicated já, displaying that she also recollects that the weather was bad (line 1). The particle is then followed by a statement which illustrates how Jessica remembers the weather. Jessica’s statement is overlapped by an interjection by Nanna and a backchannel from Sunna (lines 4–5), both of which show that the women are all of the same opinion. After a brief pause (line 6), Nanna begins an utterance but abandons it when she is overlapped by Jessica.
In this turn, Jessica reaches a conclusion which echoes Sunna’s earlier statement: “it
was just terrible last year” (line 8). The women seem, therefore, to have reached a common conclusion about the ongoing topic. After a 0.4 second pause, however, Jessica moves the focus to the present time: núna fínt ‘now fine’ (line 10).
By using the phrase núna fínt, Jessica changes the topic from last summer to this summer. Notice that the turn which involves núna is a turn with no finite verb. It consists only of the temporal adverb, núna, followed by the adjective, fínt ‘fine.’ The speaker is comparing this summer to the summer last year, and she is comparing two time periods with one another, describing their qualities.
As I have shown in the section above, núna may function as an independent lexical item. As the excerpts illustrate, núna may occur as a syntactic expansion (6.7), as an independent turn (6.8), as an adverbial phrase disjunctive from the finite verb (6.9), and in an utterance with adjectives (6.10). The two temporal markers, nú and núna, clearly differ, as nú seems to occur almost exclusively with a finite verb. The temporal nú will be looked at in section 6.3 after a summary of núna as a temporal marker.