Article published In: Interactional Linguistics
Vol. 4:2 (2024) ► pp.225–256
A multimodal approach to grammatical aspect
Embedded depictions and their aspectual characteristics as interactional resources
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of York.
Published online: 6 December 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/il.23010.ney
https://doi.org/10.1075/il.23010.ney
Abstract
This paper offers a multimodal approach to grammatical aspect, traditionally seen in linguistics as a
verbal-morphological category. Using conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, we take as our object of study turn
completions done with bodily movements and non-lexical vocalizations, focusing on the aspectual information they construct, and
how this information is oriented to as relevant to the trajectory of action underway. We argue that the aspectual information
constructed through the practice of completing a turn with bodily movements and non-lexical vocalizations is part of demonstrating
the speaker’s experiential knowledge relevant to the epistemic claims being made, in the service of securing some form of
affiliative uptake from the recipient regarding those claims. Pursuits designed in this way provide the recipient access to the
speaker’s “way of viewing the internal temporal constituency of [the] situation” (Comrie, B. (1976). Aspect. Cambridge University Press.: 3). Furthermore, we show that the aspectual information conveyed (i) by bodily movements, and (ii) co-occurring
non-lexical vocalizations, are somewhat distinct from each other. Our study is the first that we are aware of to examine the
category of grammatical aspect in turn completions and in this embodied and social-interactional way. Data are in American
English.
Keywords: aspect, grammar, morphology, epistemics, turn-taking, embodiment, multimodality
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Situating our investigation
- 2.1The (embodied) grammar of turn completions
- 2.2The (embodied) grammar of aspect
- 3.Data and methods
- 4.Multimodal aspect in action
- 4.1A first case of ‘instructing’
- 4.2Pursuits
- 5.Discussion and avenues for future research
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
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