This volume explores how emergent patterns of complex syntax - that is, syntactic structures beyond a simple clause - relate to the local contingencies of action formation in social interaction. It examines both the on-line emergence of clause-combining patterns as they are 'patched together' on the fly, as well as their routinization and sedimentation into new grammatical patterns across a range of languages - English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Mandarin, and Swedish. The chapters investigate how the real-time organization of complex syntax relates to the unfolding...