Proceeding from a systematic analysis of excerpts from televised verbal exchanges, the study demonstrates how prosody, gesture and gaze can mark syntactic boundaries and support linguistic 'repair jobs'. This underlines their cardinal significance for the perception of syntax and comprehension processes in conversational intercourse. By contrast, prosodic and nonverbal means of expression are not determined by syntax but function as signalling systems in their own right providing their users with a variety of additional semantic or stylistic/pragmatic differentiation resources.