Multimodal practices for negative assessments as delicate matters: Incomplete syntax, facial expressions, and head movements

This paper contributes to the discussion of fuzzy boundaries by investigating negative assessments of the recipient and non-present parties that are syntactically incomplete. Particularly, it explores how the speaker uses syntax and bodily visual conduct to accomplish the delicate action of negatively assessing others and to solicit the recipient to collaboratively complete negative assessments. Based on an examination of approximately 5 h of everyday Mandarin face-to-face conversations, the study shows that incomplete syntax, facial expressions, and head shakes constitute multimodal practices in making negative assessments of the recipient and a non-present third party. Leaving assessments syntactically incomplete and displaying negative evaluative stance through facial expressions such as lip-pursing and eyebrow furrows and head shakes show the speaker’s orientation to the negative assessments as a delicate action. The facial expressions after incomplete syntax demonstrate that participants orient to the hesitation in the delivery of a TCU/turn-in-progress not as production problem, but rather an interactional problem. This study shows that the boundaries of assessment turns may be blurry, and that one assessment may be collaboratively produced by two participants, which exemplifies a specific aspect of weak cesuras and fuzzy boundaries of units and actions in interaction.

Can Isoflurane and Meloxicam Mitigate Pain Associated with Cautery Disbudding of 3-Week-Old Goat Kids?

We evaluated the effect of pain mitigation strategies (isoflurane and meloxicam) on the behaviour and physiology of 3-week-old disbudded goat kids. Fifty Saanen does (mean ± SD, 21 ± 3 days old) were randomly allocated to one of five treatments: (1) cautery-disbudded (CAUT), (2) CAUT + isoflurane (ISO), (3) CAUT + isoflurane + meloxicam (ISO + MEL), (4) CAUT + meloxicam (MEL), and (5) handled without disbudding or pain relief (SHAM). Blood samples were taken immediately prior to treatment and at 15-, 60- and 120-min post-treatment to assess cortisol, glucose and lactate concentrations. Behaviour (head shaking and scratching, body shaking, feeding and self-grooming) was observed for 1 h pre- and post-treatment using video-cameras. ISO + MEL and ISO kids had lower cortisol concentrations than CAUT kids 15 min post-treatment (p ≤ 0.05). There was no effect of treatment or time for glucose and lactate concentrations (p ≥ 0.62). At 35 min post-treatment, CAUT, MEL and ISO kids performed more head shakes than SHAM kids (p ≤ 0.05). Isoflurane, with or without meloxicam, may reduce acute stress associated with disbudding of 3-week-old goat kids. More research is needed to assess whether isoflurane (with or without meloxicam) can provide sufficient pain relief for disbudding 3-week-old kids.

Incomplete utterances as critical assessments

Using video recordings of draft meetings conducted as part of an intramural basketball program as data, this conversation analytic study examines the use of an incomplete utterance in a joint evaluative activity. In particular, we focus on how the participants, volunteer coaches, who meet to draft players for their respective teams, produce a syntactically incomplete utterance as a means to critically assess a player, a non-present third party to the interaction. Analysis reveals that the participants use an incomplete utterance as part of dispreferred design; it allows them to withhold articulating overt criticism of others. By trailing off where the criticism is due, the participants display reluctance to verbalize what is to be said and treat its articulation as delicate. The syntactic structure of the utterance that includes a contrastive conjunction (‘but’) and accompanying embodied actions such as head shakes help them convey a critical stance. We examine the use of incomplete utterances in both agreement and disagreement sequences; the recipients display their unproblematic understanding of the critical assessment and respond by providing their own assessments that either affiliate or disaffiliate with the conveyed critical stance.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Mathematics Attitudes

Cold sweats, head shakes, and memories of hardship are the common reactions when adults are introduced to a high school mathematics teacher. These negative reactions contribute to an attitude towards mathematics that continues to permeate American society. Unfortunately, there is a growing concern that these negative attitudes may be passed from adults to susceptible youth resulting in a never-ending cycle of dislike towards mathematics. The current study aimed to investigate the ways in which students internalize the mathematics attitudes of their parents in light of mathematics capital theory. Instruments measuring self-efficacy beliefs in mathematics, as well as value placed on learning content were administered to all juniors, seniors, and their parents in a suburban school district. The survey data was analyzed to identify candidates for interviews. Interviews of eight parents and their children were conducted to explore the sources of the students’ self-efficacy beliefs. Findings revealed that the relationship between a parent and child’s belief systems is complex and varies according to the parent’s level of mathematics beliefs.

Gesture in contexts of scopal ambiguity: Negation and quantification in English

Gestures can play a facilitative role in the interpretation of structural ambiguities (Guellaiï, Langus, & Nespor, 2014; Prieto, Borràs-Comes, Tubau, & Espinal, 2013; Tubau, González-Fuente, Prieto, & Espinal, 2015) and are associated with spoken expression of negation (Calbris, 2011; Harrison, 2014a; Kendon, 2002, 2004). This study examines gestural forms and timing patterns with specific interpretations intended by speakers in a context of negation in English where the presence of quantification (all/most/many) yields scope ambiguities, for example, All the students didn’t go = (1). Some number of the students went, but all is not the correct number (negation takes wide scope over the quantifier; not>all), versus (2) some number of the students didn’t go, and all is that number (negation takes narrow scope over the quantifier, all>not; see Horn, 2001, Jackendoff, 1972; Syrett, Simon, & Nisula, 2014b). Twenty-five native English speakers produced scopally ambiguous sentences. Analyses of 317 co-occurring gestures revealed a preponderance of head gestures and use of semantically congruent head shakes, alignment of gestures with the negator, and lengthening of gesture strokes where interpretations involved narrow-scope negation. Results are discussed with reference to scope of negation and gesture (Harrison, 2010, 2013, 2014a, 2014b) particularly in comparison to variable patterns found for prosody (Syrett, Simon, & Nisula, 2014a).

The organisation of kinesic ensembles associated with negation

This paper describes the organisation of kinesic ensembles associated with negation in speech through a qualitative study of negative utterances identified in face-to-face conversations between English speakers. All the utterances contain a verbal negative particle (no, not, nothing, etc.) and the kinesic ensembles comprise Open Hand Prone gestures and head shakes, both associated with the expression of negation in previous studies (e.g., Kendon, 2002, 2004; Calbris, 1990, 2011; Harrison, 2009, 2010). To analyse how these elements relate to each other, the utterances were studied in ELAN annotation software with separate analytical tiers for aspects of form in both speech and gestures. The micro-analysis of the temporal and semantic coordination between tiers shows that kinesic ensembles are organized in relation to the node, scope, and focus of negation in speech. Speakers coordinate gesture phrase structures of both head and hand gestures in relation to the grammar of verbal negation, and the gestures they use share a core formational feature that expresses a negative semantic theme in line with the expression of negation in the verbal utterance. The paper demonstrates these connections between grammar and gesture and sheds light on the mechanics of ‘multimodal negation’ at the utterance level.