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Article published In: The Semiotic Diversity of Language: The Case of Signed Languages
Edited by Alysson Lepeut and Inez Beukeleers
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 36] 2022
► pp. 145–178

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Reformulation as a window into discourse and interaction in LSFB (French Belgian Sign Language)

 | University of Namur, NaLTT, LSFB-Lab
Published online: 9 June 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00074.meu
Abstract
Reformulation involves saying something again in a different way. Because of its metalinguistic nature (. 2017. “Frontières supra-catégorielles, catégorielles, infra-et trans-catégorielles de la reformulation [Supra-categorical, categorical, infra-and trans-categorical boundaries of reformulation].” Analele Universităţii din Craiova. Seria Ştiinţe Filologice. Limbi şi literaturi romanice 21 (1): 65–103.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), combined with its general aim of clarifying the utterance, we propose to consider the act of reformulation as offering a window to the way interlocutors process and adjust themselves and their utterances in their social language practices. More specifically, this study proposes a set of four analytical criteria to characterize interlocutors’ investment in discourse and interaction via the observation of their use of reformulations. These criteria concern the frequency of reformulations within a production, the proportion of self- and other-reformulations (. 1987. “Les actes de reformulations dans la consultation. La dame de Caluire [The acts of reformulations in the consultation. The lady of Caluire]”. In L’analyse des interactions verbales. La dame de Caluire: Une consultation [Analysis of verbal interactions. The lady of Caluire: A consultation], ed. by Pierre Bange, 15–81. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), the type of adjustment that the act of reformulation seeks to achieve (Authier-Revuz, Jacqueline. 1995. Ces mots qui ne vont pas de soi. Boucles réflexives et non-coïncidence du dire [These words that do not go without saying. Reflexive loops and non-coincidence in speech]. Paris: Larousse.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and the type of semiotic strategies used, namely descriptive, indicative and depictive ways of meaning making (Clark, Herbert H. 1996. Using Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Ferrara, Lindsay, and Gabrielle Hodge. 2018. “Language as Description, Indication, and Depiction.” Frontiers in Psychology 91: 716. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The paper draws on the exploratory analysis of the productions of deaf LSFB signers extracted from the LSFB Corpus. It illustrates how describing the reformulations according to the proposed criteria, reveals distinctions between different patterns of pragmatic attitude and involvement in discourse and interaction. This approach opens new avenues for the pragmatic descriptions of LSFB and signed discourses in general.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Reformulation beyond written and oral data
    • 2.1Pluri-semiotic reformulations in spoken languages
    • 2.2Reformulation in signed languages
  • 3.Discourse heterogeneity and composite utterances
    • 3.1Discourse heterogeneity and its explicit traces in discourse
    • 3.2Composite utterances
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Reformulations with marker
    • 4.2Data sample
    • 4.3Annotation scheme and coding process
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Pattern 1: Intense (depictive) involvement in the conversation topic
    • 5.2Pattern 2: Sign accuracy, at the expense of the fluidity of the story
    • 5.3Pattern 3: Dynamic and balanced interaction
    • 5.4Pattern 4: Asymmetric positions and reduced interaction in conversation
  • 6.Reformulation as a window into language use and linguistic sociality
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (51)
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