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In:Emergent Syntax for Conversation: Clausal patterns and the organization of action
Edited by Yael Maschler, Simona Pekarek Doehler, Jan Lindström and Leelo Keevallik
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 32] 2020
► pp. 245–274

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Chapter 9
Consecutive clause combinations in instructing activities

Directives and accounts in the context of physical training

 | University of Helsinki
 | University of Helsinki
 | Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore
 | University of Helsinki
Published online: 17 February 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.32.09lin
Abstract
This chapter investigates the formatting of instructions in physical training with personal trainers or physiotherapists. Instructions occur in multimodal activities where invitations to action, compliances with them, and accounts for them emerge through grammatical, prosodic and embodied resources. We identified a two-part pattern [directive & account] that accomplishes a complex structural and pragmatic unit in trainers’ instructions. The instructions are grammatically formed of consecutive clause combinations in which the directive part is a declarative or an imperative. These combinations emerge in interactive sequences and are a designed, rather than a contingent feature in the making of instructions. Nevertheless, there is variation in their sequential emergence and grammatical and prosodic composition, from tight packages to projected or expanded clause/action combinations.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Instruction as an interactionally emerging phenomenon
  • 3.Data and collection
  • 4.Overview of the instruction formats
  • 5.Analysis of instruction sequences
    • 5.1Preparatory instructions: Demonstration by trainer
    • 5.2Preparatory instructions: Client involved in trainer’s demonstration
    • 5.3Corrective instructions: Trainer intervenes in client’s performance
    • 5.4Summary: On projection, expansion and prosody
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Transcription symbols
  • Grammatical glosses
  • Notes
  • References
References (50)
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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