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In:Mobile Eye Tracking: New avenues for the study of gaze in social interaction
Edited by Elisabeth Zima and Anja Stukenbrock
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 351] 2025
► pp. 208–242

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Chapter 8
Laughter and gaze among talkers on a walk

 | University of Freiburg
 | University of Freiburg
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

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Published online: 13 May 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.351.08aue
Abstract
While the functions of gaze in (other types of) F-formations have been the focus of a considerable amount of research, the gaze patterns found in side-by-side constellations have remained largely unexplored. In this chapter, we look at a particularly frequent, but also highly complex type of side-by-side constellation, i.e. people walking and talking together. Whereas participants in a circular or vis-à-vis F-formation typically and frequently look at each other during verbal interaction, gazing at the co-walker, and even more so mutual gaze between walkers, is the exception rather than the rule. This exceptional characteristic of gazing at a co-participant raises the question of when and why participants diverge from their usual pattern of gazing forwardly while talking. We zoom in on one of the most recurrent patterns in our data, i.e. speaker-gaze at recipient in the context of a candidate laughable. The study is based on 9 dyadic walks through a national park and uses mobile eye-tracking for recording the walkers’ verbal and nonverbal practices.
Article outline
  • 1.Gaze patterns in side-by-side constellations
  • 2.Gaze and walking
  • 3.Laughter and laughables
  • 4.Data and methods
  • 5.Laughables and gaze during mobile interaction
    • 5.1Overview
    • 5.2Type 1 — speaker’s laughter combined with gaze at recipient
    • 5.3Type 2 — no speaker’s laughter but gaze at recipient
    • 5.4Type 3 — no speaker’s laughter and no gaze, but recipient laughter
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Botsch, Kerstin, Peter Auer, Barbara Laner & Martin Pfeiffer
2025. Joint attention without language?. In Mobile Eye Tracking [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 351], ► pp. 277 ff. DOI logo
Auer, Peter, Barbara Laner, Martin Pfeiffer & Kerstin Botsch
2024. Noticing and assessing nature. In New Perspectives in Interactional Linguistic Research [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 36], ► pp. 245 ff. DOI logo

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