Embodiment, Semantics and Social Action: The Case of Object-Transfer in L2 Classroom Interaction

S W Eskildsen

doi:10.3389/fcomm.2021.660674

Abstract

Using conversation analysis and usage-based linguistics, I focus on a beginning L2 user in an ESL classroom and trace his use of a “family of expressions” which, from the perspective of linguistic theory, are instantiations of either the ditransitive dative construction (e.g., “he told me the story”) or a prepositional dative construction (e.g., “he told the story to me”). The semantics of both constructions denotes transfer of an object, physically or metaphorically, from one agent to another. Therefore, I investigate them as one type of object-transfer construction. The instances of the construction are found predominantly in instruction sequences, and I show how the L2 user co-employs talk and recycled embodied work that elaborates the deictic references of the talk and the relation of agent-object-recipient roles among them. Through my analyses, I will showcase the embodied nature of linguistic categorization (Langacker, 1987) but take the argument further and suggest that the semiotic resource known as “language” is a residual of embodied social sense-making practices (aus der Wieschen and Eskildsen, 2019). The study draws on the MAELC database at Portland State University, a longitudinal audio-visual corpus of American English L2 classroom interaction.

Highlights

This article reports on the dynamics of embodied second language (L2) interaction over time
The words and the gesture work to index, in a locally adapted fashion, the what, wheres, and whos of the situated construction
The deictically fashioned gestures index the actor and the recipient of the action, and the dynamically fashioned gesture indexes the trajectory of the action from actor to recipient

Summary

INTRODUCTION

This article reports on the dynamics of embodied second language (L2) interaction over time. In line 2, Carlos contributes with a translation of the entire construction into Spanish that is accompanied by a slight flip of the wrist which may be indicative of the object-transfer aspect of the meaning of “give” (Figure 10) His turn is aimed at Rosa–neither the teacher nor Kamil speak Spanish–and, overlapping Carlos, Rosa begins giving the pen to Kamil, and utters gi:ve during the action (line 3). In line 2, Carlos is offering a multimodal translation of the teacher’s instruction into Spanish and, in line 7, he produces a gesture that indicates object-transfer alongside the single-word translation of “give” into Spanish Both actions show his own understanding of the instruction given by the teacher and the semantics of give, and they help Rosa overcome a comprehension problem. The last example (“give it to me”) is a clear case of this

A Deviant Case?

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT