While our understanding of English grammar at the single sentence level is substantial, we are only just beginning to seriously explore patterns of interclausal relations as they are used in naturally occurring language. Furthermore, even though interactional language use outweighs all other types of language use, the analysis of English discourse within linguistics has tended to concentrate on monologue data and to neglect conversation. One reason for this neglect has to do with the relatively recent development of practical and unobtrusive audio and video recording technology. If we hope to gain an understanding of how grammar emerges and changes with use (i.e., an understanding of grammar as a system adapted to its use [Du Bois 1984]), we must make use of the available technology and look more seriously at language in interaction. The present book is a contribution to our understanding of the use of a clause type that is very common in spoken English interaction: the adverbial clause. I examine the use of adverbial clauses in a corpus of naturally occurring American English conversation.

At a general level, this research is part of a larger program of interest in observing grammar in its “natural habitat”: connected, contextualized discourse. The focus here is on adverbial clause usage, in part because numerous studies have detailed their functions in discourse and in part because of their relative frequency in spoken English. In addition to contributing to our understanding of adverbial clauses in interactional language use, this study has been guided by a methodological goal: The research presented in this book demonstrates the usefulness of conversation analysis as a tool for understanding the emergence of grammar in interaction.