“Eh ciò, Sergio el xe stà anca sfortunà”

The discourse marker ciò in Trevigiano and in the regional Italian spoken in the Treviso province: a review of some of its uses in talk-in-interaction

Abstract

This conversation analytic study describes the uses of ciò ([ʧɔ]) in talk-in-interaction. This discourse marker is documented as a linguistic resource in several Venetan Italo-Romance varieties still widely spoken in the Veneto region, and it is also frequently used in the regional Italian spoken in that area. The data come from informal telephone calls and from family dinner conversations in both Italian and Trevigiano ([trevi'zaŋ]), which is a dialect spoken in the Treviso area. Preliminary results show that ciò (derived from the imperative form of the Venetan verb ciór / tór / tòr ([ʧor] / [tor] / [tɔr], ‘to take’)) is mainly mobilized as turn preface, often preceded by other particles. However, ciò is also found within the turn and, in a limited number of cases, in turn-final position. From a sequential point of view, in our data ciò occurs almost exclusively in responsive turns. This study shows that a conversation analytic approach yields a much more comprehensive understanding not only of specific structures of spoken languages but also of the complex relations existing between different linguistic varieties in Italy