The word ikke ’not/right’ in written Danish has a variety of forms in talk-in-interaction, such as ikk, ikkå, ikkås, ing and ikke. These variations can partly be explained by dialectal differences. In writing, ikke is normally used as an adverb placed centrally in a sentence e.g. penge er ikke det afgørende for os ’money is not the decisive thing for us’. In talk-in-interaction, however, ikke also often acts as a tag, placed after a completed utterance. This can be seen the example below, in which Lis tells Asta that she was stuck in traffic on the highway:

In line 6 Lis continues her utterance from lines 1-2 by adding ude i det fjerne ‘out in the distance’. Technically, the utterance is finished at this point, but Lis adds a tag in the shape of ikkås. This is then followed by a short pause and Asta then answers ja ‘yes’, before Lis continues her story in line 11. The use of ikkås in this case seems to elicit some type of response before Lis can continue her story.

Thus, ikke can be used to pursue a response from the recipient. This is also called response elicitation. Sometimes, though, a response after ikk is not necessary. This is especially the case in storytellings, in which it is already clear that the speaker will continue after finishing an utterance.

Ikk can also be used to elicit a response in other contexts, if the recipient is not saying anything at a time where it would otherwise be expected to. In that case the tag ikke does not come directly after the utterance but delayed like in example 2 below. This example is from a police interrogation where the police officer (P) interrogates Morten (M) about some breaking-and-enterings.