Abstract
The paper explores some uses of the Italian expressions bene, va bene and benissimo in institutional talk. Drawing on audio- and videorecorded data from classroom interaction, radio interviews and research interviews, and within the theoretical framework of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis, it is thus examined how bene, va bene and benissimo are drawn upon as resources to organize and structure interaction. In particular, I show how they can be used by teachers and lecturers, radio hosts and researchers - i.e., by participants who take the institutionally defined and interactionally ratified role of chairing and managing the encounter - 1) as ways of closing down question-answer sequences, and thereby as a pre-closing of the whole interaction; 2) at transitions between different kinds of activities involving changes in the participation framework; 3) or at transitions from one topic to the next. I then discuss how these resources, rather than initiating or achieving pre-closings and transitions on their own, are mobilized together with further linguistic - as for instance allora - and/or embodied resources, thus highlighting the relevance of a multimodal perspective for the analysis of face-to-face encounters.