156
Table 17: Turkish & Azerbaijani utterances and frequency of interjections
signalling (non-)understanding uttered by Turkish and Azerbaijani native
speakers.
Frequency of utterances and interjections which signalling (non-)
understanding in the analyzed data
Turkish native speakers Azerbaijani native speakers
Signal Category
Frequency
Total
Utterance
Frequency
Total
Utterance
Interjections
signalling
understanding
89
1921
67
1344
Interjections
signalling
misunderstanding
2
0
Interjections
signalling
believing to
understand
5
7
Interjections
signalling
guessing
16
19
Interjections
signalling
partial
understanding
2
0
Interjections
signalling
non-
understanding
5
3
Total
119
1921
96
1344
Although the study has a qualitative design, it is also necessary to show the
frequency of occurences of the interjections analyzed. As can be seen in the table
17 presenting the total number of Turkish and Azerbaijani utterances and
frequency of interjections signaling (non-) understanding uttered by Turkish and
Azerbaijani native speakers, Turkish interlocutors signal their
misunderstanding
(2 cases),
partial understanding (2 cases) and
non-understanding (5 times) out of
1921 utterances compared to 1344 Azerbaijani utterances in total.
157
5.2.1.2. Misunderstanding
It is observed that there is no instance in the analyzed data with respect to
the Azerbaijani interjections signalling
misunderstanding utilized by Azerbaijani
interlocutors. While Azerbaijani interlocutors did not misunderstand their Turkish
counterparts, Turkish interlocutors misunderstood their counterparts for two
times.
To exemplify this asymmetrical relationship, in the excerpt presented
below, Azerbaijani interlocutor Fahir tries to explain the guess word
Alexander
Graham Bell (inventor who has been credited with inventing first practical
telephone). After a pause of 4 seconds, he hesitatingly says
Aaa biz nəynən gəzirik
cəbimizdə? (What do we have in our pockets?) by clearing
his throat as though he
was not sure how to explain the guess word. Turkish interlocutor understands the
question and answers
Parayla (with money). Azerbaijani participant asks for
further guesses by defining the device he is looking forward to hearing:
Danışırıq
(We communicate by means of it). Turkish interlocutor does understand him and
says
Telefon (Telephone). Azerbaijani counterpart approves her guess. Fadime
then specified
her answer by saying Cep telefonu (Mobile phone) even though it is
not the answer Azerbaijani interlocutor is looking for. Azerbaijani counterpart
approves her reply again by asking:
Aha onu kim birinci onu kim eləyib (Aha
who’s the first inventor of it). Turkish interlocutor misunderstands his question.
Upon Azerbaijani interlocutor’s utterance, it can be stated that she understands
onu kim birinci onu kim eləyib (Aha who’s the first inventor of it) as “Who calls
with it”. Therefore, she says
Biz arıyoruz (We call with it). Azerbaijani
interlocutor Fahir realizes that she has misunderstood his question. So he
paraphrases and translates his question into Turkish and asks her again:
Ee birinci
kim yapıyor yaptı onu? (Aha who’s the first inventor of it). She misunderstands
the question once again and signals as though she seemed to understand what he
actually meant with her interjection:
Ha! and dictates herself what she has
(mis)understood:
Cep telefonunu kim buldu diyosun? (You are asking who
159
It is notable to state that interjection signalling
misunderstanding in the
above example
Ha!, in this case
, is identical to that of
understanding. One of the
reasons for that phenomenon might be because the interlocutors believe that they
fully understand their counterparts’ message, they signal they completely
understand the proposition even though they do not. Therefore, it seems that there
is an overlap between the interjections signalling
misunderstanding and those of
understanding. In those cases, as PRAAT analyses of the interjections present,
both intonation patterns and contextual clues of similar interjections help the
interlocutors to understand whether the messages conveyed by the interlocutors.
In addition to the overlap between
understanding and
misunderstanding,
some interjections signal
believing to understand and
understanding. Therefore,
it seems that there is an overlap between the interjections signalling
believing to
understand and those of
understanding.
ı, as an interjection signalling
believing
to understand has a slightly rising intonation pattern which is peculiar to its
phonological feature. As presented in the excerpt and the figure below,
Azerbaijani interlocutor has had difficulty in explicating the planet Mars.
Therefore he utters a secondary interjection which signals his disappointment:
Hay Allah! (Alas!). Turkish interlocutor Serkan correctly interprets his
counterpart’s interjection
Hay Allah! (Alas!) as a negative signal for his failure in
expressing and continues guessing. The reason might be because the same
secondary interjection
Hay Allah! (Alas!) occurs in Turkish as well. As he
partially understands what
he tries to express,
he asks Sayım mı gezegeni? (Should
I name the planets). Due to the Azerbaijani interlocutor’s lexical gap in Turkish,
he could not realize that
gezegen means
planet in Azerbaijani language.
Therefore, he starts explicating the planets by saying
Günəş sistemi doqquz...
(The solar system has nine). Turkish interlocutor Serkan continues the discourse
without confidence supposing that his understanding is correct. He says
Hı
uzay!
(I see, the space). As Azerbaijani interlocutor is not satisfied with his
counterpart’s answer, he continues his explanations by giving examples:
O biri