In:OKAY across Languages: Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interaction
Edited by Emma Betz, Arnulf Deppermann, Lorenza Mondada and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 34] 2021
► pp. 363–393
Chapter 12Coordination of OKAY, nods, and gaze in claiming understanding
and closing topics
Published online: 17 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34.12hel
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.34.12hel
Abstract
Our paper examines how bodily behavior
contributes to the local meaning of OKAY. We explore the interplay
between OKAY as response to informings and narratives and
accompanying multimodal resources in German multi-party interaction.
Based on informal and institutional conversations, we describe three
different uses of OKAY with falling intonation and the recurrent
multimodal patterns that are associated with them and that can be
characterized as ‘multimodal gestalts’. We show that: 1. OKAY as a
claim to sufficient understanding is typically accompanied by upward
nodding; 2. OKAY after change-of-state tokens exhibits a recurrent
pattern of up- and downward nodding with distinctive timing; and
3. OKAY closing larger activities is associated with gaze-aversion
from the prior speaker.
Keywords: nodding, gaze, multimodal, bodily conduct, object manipulation, understanding, closing, transition, change-of-state token, German
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Research on OKAY
- 1.2Research on gaze in responses
- 1.3Research on nodding in and as responses
- 1.4Data
- 2.OKAY as a claim to sufficient understanding
- 2.1OKAY as understanding claim in third position
- 2.2Responsive OKAY as understanding claim in larger sequences
- 3.OKAY after a change-of-state token
- 4.OKAY closing larger activities
- 5.Summary of findings
- 6.Conclusion
Notes
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Uyar, Gülşah & Ufuk Balaman
Kosmala, Loulou, Céline Horgues & Sylwia Scheuer
Schirm, Sam, Budimka Uskokovic & Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm
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