Sån en N (‘such an N’, where N is the noun) is a construction which is often seen both in written and spoken Danish, although it is used differently in writing and interaction. In written Danish, sån (‘such’, normally written sådan) is applied prior to a noun as a demonstrative pronoun referring to something in the previous context. In our data, sån en N does not have this anaphoric meaning because sån in this context refers to something outside the conversation.

Sån en N-constructions appeal to assumed common knowledge between the speaker and the receiver by referring to an already established referent outside the conversation which the recipient is expected to recognize. Therefore, the next preferred action after a sån en N-construction will be that the recipient confirms the speaker’s assumption about knowledge of the nominal referent N. This confirmation can be e.g. a ja (‘yes’), mm or a nod.

Three observations from data show that the speaker expects some kind of confirmation after a sån en N-construction; 1) The speaker often pauses after the turn which contains sån en N to give the recipient a chance to confirm, 2) if the recipient does not confirm, the speaker often elaborates his turn with complementary information concerning the referent, and 3) sån en N-turns are often accompanied by epistemic markers such as du ved (‘you know’) and ikk (‘right’), which seek a response from the receiver. In our data, we also see that the speaker can use descriptive gestures while uttering sån en N to further the chances of the recipient giving a confirmation.

The example below shows how sån en N appeals to common knowledge between speaker and receiver and how it gets a confirmation from the receiver: