A Conversation Analytic Study of Right as a Response Particle in US English

Abstract

The present study is a conversation analytic (CA) investigation of the response particle right in US English. I performed sequential analysis of US English conversations in the CallHome and CallFriend datasets in the TalkBank database. The analysis revealed that the token right may be used as a second pair part, in post-expansion, and as a telling receipt, and may display varying degrees of the speakers epistemic access. Especially worth noting is that right can be employed by a speaker at an epistemic inferiority in US English, contrary to the extant claim that such a usage is characteristic of UK English. I thus conclude that right in US English is a versatile response particle whose usage is not fixed to a specific sequential position or epistemic stance.