Sandager Sørensen, Søren, Emborg, Christina and Bruun, Andrea (2025) Hva fanden ('what the devil') : a conversation analytic investigation of swearing and stance in questions and quotation. Discourse and Conversation Analysis = Gesprächsforschung, 26, pp. 1-24. ISSN (print) 1617-1837
Abstract
This study investigates the use of the swear word expression hva fanden ('what the devil') in Danish talk-in-interaction by analysing 17 cases using Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics. Hva fanden occurs in information-seeking actions, which include repair (i.e., word search and other-initiated repair) and requests for information. Hva fanden conveys the speaker’s non-access to certain information, in word search without stance-taking but in other functions displaying a negative stance to e.g. a referent. Hva fanden also occurs in quoted usage, where it performs assessment by framing some conduct as worthy of a response with a negative stance, with variation in their responses (i.e., immediate or none). Through detailed analyses of interaction, the study contributes to knowledge on swearing in interaction.
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