Language and the Moving Body: Directive Actions With the Finnish kato "look" in Nature-Related Activities.

Pauliina Siitonen,Tiina Keisanen,Mirka Rauniomaa

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661784

Abstract

The article explores how social interaction is accomplished through intertwined verbal and bodily conduct, focusing on directive actions that include a second-person imperative form of the Finnish verb katsoa “to look,” typically kato. The study draws on video recordings of various outdoor activities in nature, mostly from family interaction with small children, and employs interactional linguistics and conversation analysis as its analytic framework. The directive kato actions in focus are produced (1) as noticings, to initiate a new course of action by directing the recipient to look at and possibly talk about a target that the speaker treats as newsworthy; (2) as showings, to initiate an evaluative course of action by directing the recipient to look at and align with the speaker’s stance toward the target; or (3) as prompts, to contribute to an ongoing course of action by directing the recipient to do something relevant to or with the target. Apart from the use of kato, the actions differ in their design. In noticings, the target is typically named verbally and pointed at through embodied means, but the participants remain at some distance from it (e.g., kato muurahaispesä tuossa “look an anthill there”). In showings, the participant producing the action typically approaches the recipient with the target in hand, so that the naming of the target is not necessary but, by evaluating the target themselves, the shower explicates how the target should be seen (e.g., kato kuinka jättejä “look how giant {ones}”). In prompts, neither the target nor the intended action is named, but the target is typically indicated by embodied means, for example, by the participants’ approaching and pointing at it, and the intended action is inferable from the participants’ prior conduct (e.g., kato tuossa “look there” and pointing at a berry in the participants’ vicinity when berry picking has been established as relevant). By examining these three grammar-body assemblages, the article uncovers regularities in the co-occurrence of multiple modalities and contributes to new understandings of language use in its natural ecology – in co-present social interaction.

Highlights

A common problem in the midst of our everyday activities is how to get others to do something
Of special interest in terms of the present study is the finding of Licoppe and Tuncer (2019) on video-mediated interactions in French, in which showing actions are in two-thirds of the cases prefaced with the directive regarde “look.” As will be discussed in section “Analysis and Findings,” it is the embodied, and material environment that provides the resources for the participants to collaboratively design their actions as kato showings or kato noticings, both of which centrally involve the invoking of joint attention for joint action
As we have shown earlier with a slightly smaller data set, the participants who are engaged in physical activities in natural settings most often produce kato turns as components of multimodal directive actions (Siitonen et al, 2019)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

A common problem in the midst of our everyday activities is how to get others to do something. Katopa tossa “look there” (line 13), in turn, is produced when berry-picking has already been established as the participants’ ongoing joint activity, and it is addressed to Väinö, who stands close to grandfather as well as the berries attention, the three kato actions entail increasing multimodal and multisensorial involvement from the recipient. Of special interest in terms of the present study is the finding of Licoppe and Tuncer (2019) on video-mediated interactions in French, in which showing actions are in two-thirds of the cases prefaced with the directive regarde “look.” As will be discussed in section “Analysis and Findings,” it is the embodied, and material environment that provides the resources for the participants to collaboratively design their actions as kato showings or kato noticings, both of which centrally involve the invoking of joint attention for joint action. In the middle of grandfather’s and mother’s reasoning about and laughing benevolently at Väinö’s trouble, Risto produces a noticing about an anthill (lines 4, 7, and 8), initiating his verbal turn with kato “look.”

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

CONCLUSION

ETHICS STATEMENT