The us of 'oh' as a change of voice marker in reported speech

Reported speech is often marked by a reporting verb accompanied by prosodic features to signify its onset. This is expressed through the works of Clift and Holt (2007) and Romaine and Lange (1991) who outline the variation in reporting verbs and the impact on the utterance being relayed. Günthner (1999) focuses on pitch, volume and intonation in conveying meaning within the utterances. The current analysis focuses on ‘oh’ as a marker of a change in voice which serves to complement the reporting verbs and prosodic features in signposting the shift into reported speech. This paper offers an initial exploration into the different ways in which reported speech is framed and how the use of ‘oh’ production in different forms might aid hearer comprehension. The data used is an initial interaction between a British student and an American student who is studying abroad in England. The conversation was recorded in audio and video format and was later transcribed and investigated from a conversation analytic perspective for the purpose of this paper. Heritage (1998), Heritage and Raymond (2005), Raymond and Heritage (2006) and Schegloff (2007) have focused on the role of ‘oh’ as signifying a change of state in attention, orientation and awareness. However, the work available does not account for ‘oh’ as a preface to reported speech. This paper begins to address this phenomenon.