scholarly journals If-Clauses, Their Grammatical Consequents, and Their Embodied Consequence: Organizing Joint Attention in Guided Tours

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elwys De Stefani
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
Tour Guides ◽  
Embodied Action ◽  
Guided Tours

In linguistics, if-clauses have attracted the interest of scholars working on syntax, typology and pragmatics alike. This article examines if-clauses as a resource available to tour guides for reorienting the visitors’ visual attention towards an object of interest. The data stem from 11 video-recorded tours in Italian, French, German and Dutch (interpreted into Flemish Sign Language). In this setting, guides recurrently use if-clauses to organize a joint focus of attention, by soliciting the visitors to bodily and visually rearrange. These clauses occur in combination with verbs of vision (e.g., to look), or relating to movement in space (e.g., to turn around). Using conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, this study pursues three interrelated objectives: 1) it examines the grammatical relationship that speakers establish between the if-clause and the projected main clause; 2) it analyzes the embodied conduct of participants in the accomplishment of if/then-constructions; 3) it describes if-clauses as grammatical resources with a twofold projection potential: a vocal-grammatical projection enabling the guide (or the addressees) to achieve a grammatically adequate turn-continuation, and an embodied-action projection, which solicits visitors to accomplish a situationally relevant action, such as reorienting gaze towards an object of interest. These projections do not run independently from each other. The analysis shows how, while producing an if-clause, guides adjust their emerging talk—through pauses, expansions and restarts—to the visitors’ co-occurring spatial repositioning. These practices are described as micro-sequential adjustments that reflexively affect turn-construction and embodied compliance. In addressing the above phenomena and questions, this article highlights the fundamentally adaptive, situated and action-sensitive nature of grammar.

scholarly journals Embodied spatial practices and everyday organization: The work of tour guides and their audiences

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Best ◽  
Jon Hindmarsh
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Tour Guides ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Historic House ◽  
Interactional Perspective ◽  
Guided Tours

This article introduces an interactional perspective to the analysis of organizational space. The study is based on the analysis of over 100 hours of video recordings of guided tours undertaken within two sites (an historic house and a world-famous museum), coupled with interviews and field observations. The analysis is informed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis in order to focus on the everyday organization of these tours, and the lived experience of inhabiting museum spaces. We use an interactional lens to unpack the ‘embodied spatial practices’ critical to the work of tour guides and their audiences, which reveals how the sense and significance of the workspace emerges moment to moment, and in relation to the ongoing work at hand. As a result, for those with an interest in organizational space, the article introduces a novel perspective, and methods, to highlight the dynamic and interactional production of workspaces. Additionally, for those with an interest in practice, the article demonstrates the fundamental import of taking spatial arrangements seriously when analysing the organization of work.

Situating embodied action plans: pre-enacting and planning actions within knowledge communication in sports training

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajit Singh
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Sports Training ◽  
Communicative Actions ◽  
Embodied Action ◽  
Micro Analysis ◽  
Knowledge Communication

Abstract This article investigates action plans not as mental but as situated and observable activities in social interactions. I argue that projections and action plans can be understood as complex embodied practices through which actors prepare and coordinate further actions as part of a trajectory of a “communicative project”. “Projections” within ‘talk-in-interaction’ are a central topic of conversation analysis (CA), e.g. for the micro analysis of the organization of turn-taking or for the identification of turn-constructional units. Aside from former CA-studies on syntactic and prosodic features, current research using CA from a multimodal perspective shows how embodied resources, such as gestures, serve as “premonitory components” of communicative actions. Using video data of communications in sports training in trampolining, I will show how communicatively situated “embodied action plans” are applied within pre-enactments and instructions for the production of embodied knowledge. Pre-enactments not only serve the production of an ideal imagination to corporally produce intersubjectivity. Pre-enactments are also used temporally for the multimodal and visibly situating of embodied action plans, to which actors can coordinate and orientate their current and prospective communicative actions.

Restrictiveness, exclusivity, adversativity, and mirativity

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Fang Wang ◽  
Mei-Chi Tsai ◽  
Wayne Schams ◽  
Chi-Ming Yang
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
English Only ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Turn Taking

Mandarin Chinese zhishi (similar to English ‘only’), comprised of the adverb zhi and the copula shi, can act as an adverb (ADV) or a discourse marker (DM). This study analyzes the role of zhishi in spoken discourse, based on the methodological and theoretical principles of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis. The corpus used in this study consists of three sets of data: 1) naturally-occurring daily conversations; 2) radio/TV interviews; and 3) TV panel discussions on current political affairs. As a whole, this study reveals that the notions of restrictiveness, exclusivity, and adversativity are closely associated with ADV zhishi and DM zhishi. In addition, the present data show that since zhishi is often used to express a ‘less than expected’ feeling, it can be used to indicate mirativity (i.e. language indicating that an utterance conveys the speaker’s surprise). The data also show that the distribution of zhishi as an adverb or discourse marker depends on turn taking systems and speech situations in spoken discourse. Specifically, the ADV zhishi tends to occur in radio/TV interviews and TV panel news discussions, while the DM zhishi occurs more often in casual conversations.

Order effects and multi-city visits: tour guides’ perspectives

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samira Zare ◽  
Philip Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Position Effect ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Position Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tour Guides ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Perceived Effects ◽  
Guided Tours ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the order in which a set of cities are visited to ascertain the effects of position on group tourists’ recall and evaluations. Design/methodology/approach Using a questionnaire, the views of highly experienced tour guides were analysed to provide preliminary insights about the likely occurrence of position effects. The topic was studied in Iran where a natural variation in the order of visiting cities on guided tours exists. Findings Credible and consistent evidence was found for the perceived effects of recency when considering tourists’ recall and evaluations. In particular, the influence was seen as clearly enhancing the recall and positive evaluation for the most high profile cities in the set of visited locations. Research limitations/implications Replications of the position effect in other countries and for other kinds of tourism cities needs to be pursued, desirably by direct assessments of tourist’ views to buttress the present views held by guides. Practical implications Designing itineraries by making imaginative use of the effects of order on the tourists’ sequence of city visits should facilitate the memorability of destinations for tourists and benefit businesses. Originality/value Empirical evidence about order effects in multi-city tour itineraries has never been established. The study provides foundation evidence for such influences through a non-reactive and naturalistic assessment by tour guides who are in contact with varied itineraries and who regularly consider the experiences of diverse and large numbers of tourists.

scholarly journals Facilitating joint attention with salient pointing in interactions involving children with autism spectrum disorder

Gesture ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-403
Author(s):  
Katja Dindar ◽  
Terhi Korkiakangas ◽  
Aarno Laitila ◽  
Eija Kärnä
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Multimodal Approach ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Pointing Gestures ◽  
Pointing Gesture

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reportedly have difficulties in responding to bids for joint attention, notably in following pointing gestures. Previous studies have predominantly built on structured observation measures and predefined coding categories to measure children’s responsiveness to gestures. However, how these gestures are designed and what detailed interactional work they can accomplish have received less attention. In this paper, we use a multimodal approach to conversation analysis (CA) to investigate how educators design their use of pointing in interactions involving school-aged children with ASD or autistic features. The analysis shows that pointing had specific sequential implications for the children beyond mere attention sharing. Occasionally, the co-occurring talk and pointing led to ambiguities when a child was interpreting their interactional connotations, specifically when the pointing gesture lacked salience. The study demonstrates that the CA approach can increase understanding of how to facilitate the establishment of joint attention.

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