Cover not available

In:New Perspectives in Interactional Linguistic Research
Edited by Margret Selting and Dagmar Barth-Weingarten
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 36] 2024
► pp. 245–275

Get fulltext
PDF logo with download linkDownload Chapter PDF

Noticing and assessing nature

A multimodal investigation of the format “perception imperative + exclamative” based on mobile eye-tracking data

 | University of Freiburg
 | University of Freiburg
 | University of Potsdam
 | Black Forest National Park
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 26 August 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.36.09aue
Abstract
We analyze how walkers employ a verbal format, i.e., the combination of a perception imperative followed by a wie ‘how’-exclamative (e.g., KUCK ma wie TRAUMhaft das is; ‘look PTCL how wonderful that is’), in its multimodal embedding, thus contributing to a multimodal extension of interactional linguistics. The analysis heavily relies on mobile eye-tracking as a method to collect naturally occurring data. It is argued that this kind of analysis would not be possible without the use of this novel technology. We focus on the role of the verbal format in the process of transforming individual perceptions into intersubjective experiences of nature, for which the precise documentation of gaze is essential. It is shown that the interactional function of this combined format is to draw the co-walker’s attention to an object in the surroundings and to express an affective stance towards it, treating the noticed referent as noteworthy and remarkable.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Walking together
    • 2.2Walking together in nature
  • 3.The constructional format “perception imperative + wie ‘how’-exclamative”
    • 3.1Perception imperatives
    • 3.2Wie ‘how’-exclamatives
  • 4.Data and methods
  • 5.The format and its multimodal embedding
  • 6.Solitary uses of perception imperatives or wie ‘how’-exclamatives
    • 6.1Only the perception imperative is used
    • 6.2Only the wie ‘how’-exclamative is used
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (72)
References
Altmann, Hans. 1987. “Zur Problematik der Konstitution von Satzmodi als Formtypen.” In Satzmodus zwischen Grammatik und Pragmatik, ed. by Jörg Meibauer, 22–56. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. “Satzmodus.” In Syntax. Ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung, ed. by Joachim Jacobs, Arnim von Stechow, Wolfgang Sternefeld, and Theo Vennemann, 1006–1029. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anna, Marina, and Martin Pfeiffer. 2021. “Die frühkindliche Verwendung des Exklamativformats ‚oh+X‘: Noticings und Problemmitteilungen.” Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 22: 1–35. [URL]
Auer, Peter. 1988. “On Deixis and Displacement.” Folia Linguistica XXII/3–4: 263–292. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “‘Wie geil ist das denn?’ Eine neue Konstruktion im Netzwerk ihrer Nachbarn.” Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik 44 (1): 69–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auer, Peter, and Anja Stukenbrock. 2022. “Deictic Reference in Space.” In Pragmatics of Space (=Handbook of Pragmatics, Vol. 14), ed. by Andreas Jucker and Heiko Hausendorf. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auer, Peter, and Barbara Laner. Submitted. “Laughter and Gaze among Talkers on a Walk.” In Mobile Eyetracking: New Avenues for the Study of Gaze in Social Interaction, ed. by Anja Stukenbrock and Elisabeth Zima. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Batliner, Anton. 1988. “Der Exklamativ: Mehr als Aussage oder doch nur mehr oder weniger Aussage? Experimente zur Rolle von Höhe und Position des F0-Gipfels.” In Intonationsforschungen, ed. by Hans Altmann, 243–271. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blythe, Joe, Rod Gardner, Ilana Mushin, and Lesley Sterling. 2018. “Tools of Engagement: Selecting a Next Speaker in Australian Aboriginal Multiparty Conversation.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 51 (2): 145–170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Botsch, Kerstin, Peter Auer, Barbara Laner, and Martin Pfeiffer, submitted. “Joint Attention Without Language? On Intersubjectivity and the Joint Experience of Nature.” In Mobile Eyetracking: New Avenues for the Study of Gaze in Social Interaction, ed. by Anja Stukenbrock and Elisabeth Zima. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Broth, Mathias, and Lorenza Mondada. 2013. “Walking Away: The Embodied Achievement of Activity Closings in Mobile Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 47: 41–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burckhardt, Lucius. 2006. Warum ist Landschaft schön? Die Spaziergangswissenschaft. 3rd edition. Berlin: Martin Schmitz Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
D’Avis, Franz. 2001. Über w-Exklamativsätze im Deutschen. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Exklamativsatz.” In Satztypen des Deutschen, ed. by Jörg Meibauer, Markus Steinbach, and Hans Altmann, 171–201. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf. 2021. “Imperative im Deutschen: Konstruktionen, Praktiken oder social action formats?” In Verfestigungen in der Interaktion, ed. by Beate Weidner, Katharina König, Wolfgang Imo, and Lars Wegner, 195–230. Berlin /Boston: DeGruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Stefani, Elwys. 2010. “Reference as an Interactively and Multimodally Accomplished Practice. Organizing Spatial Reorientation in Guided Tours.” In Spoken Communication, ed. by Massimo Pettorino, Antonella Giannini, Isabella Chiara, and Francesca Dovetto, 137–170. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Rearranging (in) Space. On Mobility and its Relevance for the Study of Face-to-face Interaction.” In Space in Language and Linguistics. Geographical, Interactional, and Cognitive Perspectives, ed. by Peter Auer, Martin Hilpert, Benedikt Szmrecsanyi, and Anja Stukenbrock, 434–463. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, Nicolas. 2007. “Insubordination and its Uses.” In Finiteness. Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, ed. by Irina Nikolaeva, 366–431. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Behavior in Public Places. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1978. “Response Cries.” Language 54 (4): 787–815. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1981. Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Golato, Andrea. 2012. German oh: Marking an emotional change of state. In Research on Language and Social Interaction 45: 245–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles. 1980. “Restarts, Pauses, and the Achievement of a State of Mutual Gaze at Turn-beginning.” Social Inquiry 50: 772–302. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Majorie, and Charles Goodwin. 2012. “Car Talk: Integrating Texts, Bodies, and Changing Landscapes.” Semiotica 191: 257–286. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Günthner, Susanne. 2017. “Diskursmarker in der Interaktion – Formen und Funktionen univerbierter guck mal- und weißt du-Konstruktionen.” In Diskursmarker im Deutschen. Reflexionen und Analysen, ed. by Hardarik Blühdorn, Arnulf Deppermann, Henrike Helmer, and Thomas Spranz-Fogasy, 103–130. Göttingen: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 1984. “A Change-of-state Token and Aspects of its Sequential Placement.” In Structures of Social Action – Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson, and John Heritage. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jucker, Andreas H., Heiko Hausendorf, Christa Dürscheid, Karina Frick, Christoph Hottiger, Wolfgang Kesselheim, Angelika Linke, Nathalie Meyer, and Antonia Steger. 2018. “Doing Space in Face-to-face Interaction and on Interactive Multimodal Platforms.” Journal of Pragmatics 134: 85–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kääntä, Leila. 2014. “From Noticing to Initiating Correction: Students’ Epistemic Displays in Instructional Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 66: 86–105. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keisanen, Tiina. 2012. “’uh-oh, we were going there’: Environmentally Occasioned Noticings of Trouble in In-car Interaction.” Semiotica 191: 197–222. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendon, Adam. 1967. “Some Functions of Gaze Direction in Social Interaction.” Acta Psychologica 26: 22–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Gesture. Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laanesoo, Kirsi, and Leelo Keevallik. 2017. “Noticing Breaches with Non-polar Interrogatives: Estonian Kes ‘Who’ Ascribing Responsibility for Problematic Conduct.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 50 (3): 286–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laner, Barbara. 2022. “‘Guck mal der Baum’ – Zur Verwendung von Wahrnehmungsimperativen mit und ohne mal.” Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 23: 1–35. [URL]
Maschler, Yael. 2020. “The Insubordinate – Subordinate Continuum. Prosody, Embodied Action, and the Emergence of Hebrew Complex Syntax.” In Emergent Syntax for Conversation: Clausal Patterns and the Organization of Action, ed. by Yael Maschler, Simona Pekarek Doehler, Jan Lindström, and Leelo Keevallik, 87–126. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meibauer, Jörg, Markus Steinbach, and Hans Altmann. 2013. “Kontroversen in der Forschung zu Satztypen und Satzmodus.” In Satztypen des Deutschen, ed. by Jörg Meibauer, Markus Steinbach, and Hans Altmann, 1–19. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merlino, Sara, and Lorenza Mondada. 2019. “Crossing the Street: How Pedestrians Interact with Cars.” Language & Communication 65: 131–147. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2012. “Organisation multimodale de la parole-en-interaction: pratiques incarnées d’introduction des référants”. Langue française 173 (3): 129–147. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014a. “The local constitution of multimodal resources for social interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 65: 137–156. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014b. “Bodies in action: multimodal analysis of walking and talking.” Language and Dialogue 4 (3): 357–403. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014c. “Pointing, talk and the bodies: Reference and joint attention as embodied interactional achievements.” In From Gesture in Conversation to Visible Utterance in Action, edited by Mandana Seyfeddinipur & Marianne Gullberg. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 95–124. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “Walking and Talking Together: Questions/Answers and Mobile Participation in Guided Visits.” Social Science Information 56 (2): 220–253. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mortensen, Kristian, and Johannes Wagner. 2019. “Inspection Sequences – Multisensorial Inspections of Unfamiliar Objects.” Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 20: 399–443.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Näf, Anton. 1987. “Gibt es Exklamativsätze?” In Satzmodus zwischen Grammatik und Pragmatik, ed. by Jörg Meibauer, 140–160. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. “Die w-Exklamativsätze im Deutschen – zugleich ein Plädoyer für eine Rehabilitierung der Empirie in der Sprachwissenschaft.” Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik 24: 135–152. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “Zentrum und Peripherie in der deutschen Syntax. Das Beispiel der Satzarten des Deutschen.” Linguistik Online 108: 67–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, Martin. 2016. “The Deictic Dimension of Exclamations: On the Use of wh-Exclamatives in German Face-to-face Interaction.” Revue de Sémantique et Pragmatique 40: 35–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, Martin, and Marina Anna. 2021. “Recruiting Assistance in Early Childhood: Longitudinal Changes in the Use of ‘oh+X’ as a Way of Reporting Trouble in German.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 54 (2): 142–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Proske, Nadine. 2017. “Zur Funktion und Klassifikation gesprächsorganisatorischer Imperative.“ In Diskursmarker im Deutschen. Reflexionen und Analysen, ed. by Hardarik Blühdorn, Arnulf Deppermann, Henrike Helmer, and Thomas Spranz-Fogasy, 73–102. Göttingen: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rauniomaa, Mirka, Tiina Keisanen, Pauliina Siitonen. 2021. “Shared Understandings of the Human–Nature Relationship in Encounters with Small Wildlife.” In Intersubjectivity in Action: Studies in Language and Social Interaction, ed. by Jan Lindström, Ritva Laury, Anssi Peräkylä, and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 201–230. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Relieu, Marc. 1999. “Parler en marchant. Pour une écologie dynamique des échanges de paroles.” Langage et société 89: 37–67.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Repp, Sophie. 2019. “The Prosody of wh-Exclamatives and wh-Questions in German: Speech Act Differences, Information Structure, and Sex of Speaker.” Language and Speech 63 (2): 306–361. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rossano, Federico. 2013. “Gaze in Conversation.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell and Tanya Stivers, 308–329. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryave, Lincoln A., and James N. Schenkein. 1974. “Notes on the Art of Walking.” In Ethnomethodology: Selected Readings, ed. by Roy Turner, 265–274. Harmondsworth: Penguin Education.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1995. Lectures on Conversation, Vol. II, ed. by Gail Jefferson. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1988. “Goffman and the Analysis of Conversation.” In Erving Goffman: Exploring the Interaction Order, ed. by Paul Drew, and Anthony J. Wootton, 89–135. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1998. “Body torque.” Social Research 65 (3): 535–596.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmitt, Reinhold. 2012. “Gehen als situierte Praktik: ‘Gemeinsam gehen’ und ‘hinter jemandem herlaufen’.” Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 13: 1–44 ([URL]).
Selting, Margret, Peter Auer, Birgit Barden, Jörg Bergmann, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, Susanne Günthner, Christoph Meier, Uta Quasthoff, Peter Schlobinski, and Susanne Uhmann. 2009. “Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2 (GAT 2).” Gesprächsforschung 10: 353–402 ([URL]).
Siitonen, Pauliina, Mirka Rauniomaa, and Tiina Keisanen. 2021. “Language and the Moving Body: Directive Actions With the Finnish Kato ‘Look’ in Nature-Related Activities.” Frontiers in Psychology 12: 66178. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steger, Antonia. 2019. “Aneinander-Vorbeigehen – Eine Interaktionsanalyse flüchtiger urbaner Begegnungen.” Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik 47 (2): 313–336. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanja, and Rossano, Federico. 2019. “Mobilizing Response.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 54 (1): 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stukenbrock, Anja. 2009. “Referenz durch Zeigen: Zur Theorie der Deixis.” Deutsche Sprache: Zeitschrift für Theorie, Praxis, Dokumentation 37: 289–288. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Deixis in der face-to-face-Interaktion. Berlin/München: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Deixis, Meta-perceptive Gaze Practices, and the Interactional Achievement of Joint Attention.” Frontiers in Psychology 11: 1–23, article 1779. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stukenbrock, Anja, and Karin Birkner. 2010. “Multimodale Ressourcen bei Stadtführungen.“ In Deutschland als fremde Kultur: Vermittlungsverfahren in Touristenführungen, ed. by Marcella Costa and Bernd Müller-Jacquier, 214–243. München: Judicium.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stukenbrock, Anja, and Anh Nhi Dao. 2019. “Joint Attention in Passing: What Dual Mobile Eye Tracking Reveals about Gaze in Coordinating Embodied Activities at a Market.” In Embodied Activities in Face-to-Face and Mediated Settings, ed. by Elisabeth Reber and Cornelia Gerhardt, 177–213. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szymanski, Margaret H. 1999. “Re-engaging and Disengaging Talk in Activity.” Language in Society 28 (1): 1–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. 1995. “Joint attention as social cognition.” In Joint attention: Its origins and role in development, ed. by Chris Moore, and Philip J. Dunham, 103–130. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Olmen, Daniel. 2011. The Imperative in English and Dutch: A Functional Analysis in Comparable and Parallel Corpora. Dissertation. Antwerp: University of Antwerp.
vom Lehn, Dirk. 2013. “Withdrawing from Exhibits: The Interactional Organisation of Museum Visits.” In Interaction and Mobility: Language and the Body in Motion, ed. by Pentti Haddington, Lorenza Mondada, and Maurice Nevile, 65–90. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zifonun, Gisela, Ludger Hoffmann, and Bruno Strecker. 1997. Grammatik der deutschen Sprache. 3 Bände. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Auer, Peter & Barbara Laner
2025. Laughter and gaze among talkers on a walk. In Mobile Eye Tracking [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 351], ► pp. 208 ff. DOI logo
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
Laner, Barbara
2025. Mobile stance-taking in nature: an exploration of gaze patterns during assessments of objects in nature. Frontiers in Psychology 15 DOI logo
Stukenbrock, Anja & Angeliki Balantani
2025. When the establishment of joint attention becomes problematic. In Mobile Eye Tracking [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 351], ► pp. 243 ff. DOI logo
Stukenbrock, Anja & Elisabeth Zima
2025. Introduction. In Mobile Eye Tracking [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 351], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Zima, Elisabeth, Peter Auer & Christoph Rühlemann
2025. Why research on gaze in social interaction needs mobile eye tracking. In Mobile Eye Tracking [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 351], ► pp. 24 ff. DOI logo

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.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue