How to anchor reactions Interactional common ground, preference structure and (im)politeness in Roman comedy

The common ground on which interlocutors base their interactional contributions involves not only the preceding interaction and expectations vis-à-vis each other, but is also based on shared knowledge of (implicit) conversational norms and preferences. Deviations are usually noticed and interpreted as uncooperative, or even impolite. Although insights gained within Conversation Analysis are based on research of modern natural language data, this paper will illustrate how they are also reflected in the interactional structures of literary dialogues in Latin comedy, focusing mainly on principles of sequencing and preference structure.