This conversation-analytic study presents an empirical analysis of the use of a Japanese interjection, hora. It focuses exclusively on the use of an X-hora-Y format and attempts to reveal how participants use this format to achieve an interactional goal. The analysis demonstrates that the X-hora-Y format is used when the speaker has exclusive access to an initial action (=X), and the subsequent use of hora then serves as a signal to initiate an action (=Y) that re-presents or reformulates the previous action in a shareable way. This format is thus used as an international practice to redress the epistemic imbalance between the speaker and the hearer and to establish a shared understanding. In his seminal paper, Heritage (2012) exemplified how the epistemic imbalance between the speaker and the hearer motivates a sequence of interactions. Even within the X-hora-Y format, a similar motivation is at work.
","language":null,"license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0","short_name":"CC BY-NC-ND 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.\n\nNoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0"},"keywords":[],"section":"Oral Presentations","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/45k7b1fn","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Hideyuki","middle_name":"","last_name":"Sugiura","name_suffix":"","institution":"Doshisha University","department":"English"}],"date_submitted":"2025-07-10T16:56:58.316000+02:00","date_accepted":"2025-07-11T09:02:58.990000+02:00","date_published":"2025-07-07T09:00:00+02:00","render_galley":{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/japanesekoreanlinguistics/article/48952/galley/36876/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/japanesekoreanlinguistics/article/48952/galley/36876/download/"}]}