Some interactional functions of finger pointing in signed language conversations

Lindsay Ferrara

doi:10.5334/gjgl.993

Abstract

Interlocutors participating in conversation collaborate with each other to coordinate their actions and talk. Research on spoken language conversations has shown that speakers use bodily gestures, in addition to speech, to regulate their interaction. The current study expands on this research by investigating how signed language users finger point to express interactional meanings. Studies of pointing in signed languages have largely focused on referential functions, as signers frequently point to refer to themselves and others, as well as visible and invisible referents. However, this study demonstrates how signers also finger point to deliver information, cite previous contributions, seek responses, manage turns, and give feedback. These interactional meanings are important, just as identifying discourse referents is important. Language theory should be able to accommodate this complexity of language in conversation, which involves an interplay between different types of semiosis (description, depiction, indexicality) in an inclusive, systematic way.

Highlights

1.1 Accommodating the semiotic diversity of conversation in language theory Face-to-face conversation is a type of “talk in interaction” (Sacks et al 1974: 720) and a basic setting where language is used (Fillmore 1981; Chafe 1994; Clark 1996)
5 Conclusion This paper has reported on a study of finger pointing in Norwegian Sign Language conversations that serve to index aspects of the emergent interaction, and not just discourse referents
Findings from a corpus of Norwegian Sign Language showed that signers frequently point as a way to 1) deliver information, 2) cite previous contributions to the interaction, 3) seek a response from an interlocutor, 4) coordinate turn-taking, and 5) provide conversational feedback

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Accommodating the semiotic diversity of conversation in language theory Face-to-face conversation is a type of “talk in interaction” (Sacks et al 1974: 720) and a basic setting where language is used (Fillmore 1981; Chafe 1994; Clark 1996). Visible bodily actions, which may be combined with speech, to describe, depict, and index meanings across specific times and contexts as parts of composite utterances (Enfield 2009; see Kendon 2014; Ferrara & Hodge 2018). The multimodal and semiotically diverse nature of face-to-face conversation has implications for language theory. There has been a preoccupation with only the most conventionalized

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