This article focuses on free NPs, i.e. noun phrases that are grammatically not part of any clause but form units of their own. Using the methodology of discourse-functional and interactional linguistics, I analyze the morphosyntactic, prosodic and interactional features of free NPs in conversational Finnish. With its rich morphological marking, Finnish provides an interesting perspective on free NPs: Morphosyntactic features, together with semantics, are crucial in determining the status of an NP as a clausal constituent or a free NP. The prosodic analysis shows that the majority of free NPs show clear prosodic boundaries, signalled for example by speaker change, coherent intonation contour, pause or pitch reset. Free NPs serve various interactional functions, such as making assessments or disambiguating referents. These are functions which operate on something already established in the discourse. Free NPs, however, can also initiate something new for example by making requests or introducing new topics.

中文翻译：

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以芬兰语为单位的免费 NP

本文重点介绍自由 NP，即在语法上不属于任何子句但形成其自身单位的名词短语。使用话语功能和交互语言学的方法，我分析了芬兰语会话中自由 NP 的形态句法、韵律和交互特征。凭借其丰富的形态标记，芬兰语为自由 NP 提供了一个有趣的视角：形态句法特征和语义对于确定 NP 是从句成分还是自由 NP 的地位至关重要。韵律分析表明，大多数自由 NP 显示出清晰的韵律边界，例如通过说话者变化、连贯的语调轮廓、停顿或音高重置来表示。自由 NP 服务于各种交互功能，例如进行评估或消除指涉对象的歧义。这些是对话语中已经建立的事物进行操作的功能。然而，免费 NP 也可以发起一些新事物，例如通过提出请求或引入新主题。