The Finnish projector phrase se että as a fixed expression

Abstract

This chapter shows that the Finnish expression se että 'it (is) that', consisting of a demonstrative followed by a complementizer, is a fixed projective element in talkin-interaction both on its own and with collocating elements. It shares features with projector phrases identified for other languages: it is used both to prepare the addressee for the nature of the upcoming and to underline the upcoming as central to the ongoing interaction. The analysis of se että having grammaticized into a projector phrase is supported by prosodic evidence: the two elements are most often produced as one prosodic word. The findings support the idea that se että emerges in interaction with a fixed form rather than being generated by a syntactic rule. 1 Authorship is equally shared. We thank the anonymous referees and the series editor as well as Yoshi Ono for their invaluable comments which have improved our contribution greatly. Remaining shortcomings are of course our responsibility. We are also grateful to the participants of the end symposium of the project "The Question of Units in Language and Interaction" held in Helsinki in 2016, where we first presented this study.