Multi-modality in girls’ game disputes

Abstract

This paper examines embodied procedures for producing disagreement turns in the midst of the children’s game of hopscotch. Turn shape, intonation, and body positioning are all critical to the construction of stance towards a player’s move in the game. In particular, in formulating a player’s move as ‘‘out’’ foul calls can state unambiguously, without doubt or delay that a violation has occurred. Turn initial tokens in disagreement turns include cries of ‘‘OUT!’’, negatives (‘‘No!’’), or response cries (nonlexicalized, discrete interjections such as ‘‘Ay!’’ or ‘‘Eh!’’). Players make use of pitch leaps, vowel lengthening, and dramatic contours (for example, LHL contours) to vocally highlight opposition in the turn preface. Whereas the normal pitch range of a speaker’s talk in ordinary conversation can be between 250 and 350 Hz, in opposition moves the pitch may be considerably higher, around 600 Hz. Affective stance is also displayed through gestures such as extended points towards the person who has committed the foul or the space where the foul occurred. Explanations or demonstrations (frequently embodied re-enactments of the player’s past move) constitute additional critical components of disagreement moves as they provide the grounds for the opposition. Disagreement moves and trajectories within children’s games provide demonstrations of the practices through which girls build and display themselves as agents in the constitution of their social order. Data for this study consists of videotaped interaction of working class fifth grade girls on the playground: second generation Mexican and Central Americans in Los Angeles, and African American Southern migrant children. Ethnic differences in the display