The study sheds light on tendencies in usage patterns of da in contemporary spoken German ( FOLK ). Usage patterns refer to preferences with regard to pragmatic and functional characteristics (partly also semantic aspects), which encompass functions in the area of information and conversation structure, as well as correlations between these characteristics and the forms of communication analysed. On the one hand, the results underpin previous findings such as the special nature of da among the deictics - due to its variable deictic strength - its local and situative core meaning as well as its diverse readings (local, situative, temporal, causal, consecutive, final, instrumental, adversative). On the other hand, some unexpected preferences emerge: the predominance of references in the discourse frames ( Rede- and Diskursraum ) compared with references in the speech-time and imaginative frames ( Sprech-Zeit- and Vorstellungsraum ) (this finding correlates with the relatively few communicative activities which accompany action in the sample) together with the important role in structuring information, speech and discourse. The data also prove the flexible use of da , for example in the different forms of referring in the discourse frame (strict anadeixis,'situative anadeixis', recognitional anadeixis, discourse deixis), the diversity of the focussing scope (phrase, proposition(s), knowledge element(s)) and of the entity in focus (place, thing, time, situation). Correlations can be found, for instance, between the reference in the speech-time frame and the local and/or situative reading as well as between the da-adverb connector and the temporal and sequential reading.
