Coordinating Gesture, Talk, and Gaze in Reenactments

2006/07/01 by Jack Sidnell · 1 voice · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies

paper · doi:10.1207/s15327973rlsi3904_2

openalex publication_date 2006/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

In this article, I examine the coordination of talk, gaze, and gesture in the production of reenactments in conversation. Reenactments involve re-presentations or depictions and are thus distinct from tellings, which are primarily descriptive. A basic question I address concerns how recipients are able to parse a larger telling into those parts of it that narrate or tell about the events being described and those that reenact them. Analysis of several instances suggests that speaker gaze plays a crucial role in this respect. I discuss the relation between reenactments and direct quotation (Holt, 2000) and demonstration (Clark & Gerrig, 1990) as well as the significance of the analysis for current understanding of multimodality in interaction.

Citations

• The Neglected Situation
• Reporting and Reacting: Concurrent Responses to Reported Speech
• Reporting on Talk: The Use of Direct Reported Speech in Conversation
• A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation

Cited by

• Facial clues to conversational intentions
• Language as Description, Indication, and Depiction

Discussions

• One thing I skipped over: Garcia noted the diagnostic use of eye gaze to distinguish showing from telling (or transfer units from lexical units); here's a useful spoken language link to work on reenac [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]