Cover not available
Part of
Time in Embodied Interaction: Synchronicity and sequentiality of multimodal resources
Edited by Arnulf Deppermann and Jürgen Streeck
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 293] 2018
► pp. 69–96

Chapter 2
Suspending talk

Multimodal organization of participation and stance in Japanese

This chapter investigates ways in which multiple participants coordinate actions within a temporally unfolding “turn-constructional unit (TCU)” in Japanese conversation. Utterances are shaped by ongoing processes of participation and speakers modulate the structure of their emerging TCU with recipients’ dynamic stance-displays. Building on Iwasaki (2011, 2013), the paper examines ways in which speakers delay the further realization of an unfolding unit by suspending its progressivity, and incorporate recipients’ actions into the design of the turn. The speaker creates interstitial spaces right after or immediately before producing a component conveying speaker’s stance and affiliation, and invites recipient’s actions toward the particular component before completing the turn. This chapter illustrates systematic multimodal practices within unit construction that enable emergent forms of participation.

Keywords: turn-constructional unit, suspending talk, stance, Japanese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Notes on structures of Japanese and their implication for unit-construction
  • 3.Temporal coordination and suspension within a single TCU
    • 3.1Temporal suspension embodies an invitation for confirmation to speaker’s candidate understanding
    • 3.2Suspension indicates speaker’s epistemic uncertainty
    • 3.3 Collaborative construction of affiliation: Choreographing stance sharing
    • 3.4Stance modulation and turn transformation
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 13 September 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.293.02iwa
References
Chevalier, Fabienne H. G. and Rebecca Clift
2008 “Unfinished Turns in French Conversation: Projectability, Syntax and Action.” Journal of Pragmatics 40: 1731–1752.Google Scholar
Clancy, Patricia M.
1982 “Written and Spoken Style in Japanese Narratives.” In Spoken and Written Language, ed. by Tannen, Deborah, 55–76. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Clancy, Patricia M., Thompson, Sandra A., Suzuki, Ryoko, and Hongyin Tao
1996 “The Conversational Use of Reactive Tokens in English, Japanese, and Mandarin.” Journal of Pragmatics 26: 355–387.Google Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf
2013 “Multimodal Interaction from a Conversation Analytic Perspective.” Journal of Pragmatics 46: 1–8.Google Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf, and Susanne Günthner
2015 “Temporality in Interaction.” In Temporality in Interaction, ed by Deppermann, Arnulf, and Susanne Günthner, 1–23. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Du Bois, John. W., and Elise Kärkkäinen
2012 “Taking a Stance on Emotion: Affect, Sequence, and Intersubjectivity in Dialogic Interaction.” Text and Talk 32 (4): 433–451.Google Scholar
Englebretson, Robert
(ed) 2007 Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, Evaluation, Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Fox, Barbara A, Hayashi, Makoto, and Robert Jasperson
1996 “Resources and Repair: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Syntax and Repair.” In Interaction and Grammar, ed. by Ochs, Elinor, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Sandra A. Thompson, 185–237. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles
1979 “The Interactive Construction of a Sentence in Natural Conversation.” In Everyday Language: Studies in Ethnomethodology, ed. by Psathas, George, 97–121. New York: Irvington Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
2007 “Participation, Stance and Affect in the Organization of Activities.” Discourse and Society 18 (1): 53–73.Google Scholar
2013 “The Co-Operative, Transformative Organization of Human Action and Knowledge.” Journal of Pragmatics 46: 8–23.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles, and Marjorie Harness Goodwin
1992 “Assessments and the Construction of Context.” In Rethinking Context, ed. by Duranti, Alessandro, and Charles Goodwin, 147–190. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2004 “Participation.” In A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, ed. by Duranti, Alessandro, 222–244. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness
1980 “Process of Mutual Monitoring Implicated in the Production of Description.” Sociological Inquiry 50: 303–317.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, and Charles Goodwin
2001 “Emotion within Situated Activity.” In Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader, ed. by Duranti, Alessandro, 239–257. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Google Scholar
(
Originally published in Budwig, Nancy, Uzgiris, Ina C., and James V. Wertsch (2000): Communication: An Arena of Development, ed.by Stamford, CT: Ablex.)Google Scholar
Hayano, Kaoru
2013 Territories of Knowledge in Japanese Conversation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto
2003 Joint Utterance Construction in Japanese Conversation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
2004 “Discourse within a Sentence: An Exploration of Postpositions in Japanese as an Interactional Resource.” Language in Society 33: 343–376.Google Scholar
2005 “Joint Turn Construction through Language and the Body: Notes on Embodiment in Coordinated Participation in Situated Activities.” Semiotica 156 (1/4): 21–53Google Scholar
Heritage, John
2012 “Epistemics in Action: Action Formation and Territories of Knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45: 1–29.Google Scholar
Heritage, John, and Geoffrey Raymond
2005 “The Terms of Agreement: Indexing Epistemic Authority and Subordination in Talk-in-Interaction.” Social Psychology Quarterly 68 (1): 15–38.Google Scholar
Iwasaki, Shimako
2011 “The Multimodal Mechanics of Collaborative Unit Construction in Japanese Conversation.” In Embodied Interaction. Language and Body in the Material World, ed. by Streeck, Jürgen, Goodwin, Charles, and Curtis LeBaron, 106–120. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2013 “Emerging Units and Emergent Forms of Participation within a Unit in Japanese Interaction: Local Organization at a Finer Level of Granularity.” In Units of Talk – Units of Action, ed. by Szczepek-Reed, Beatrice, and Geoffrey Raymond, 243–275. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Iwasaki, Shoichi
1993 “The Structure of the Intonation Unit in Japanese.” In Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Vol. 3, ed. by Choi, Soonja, 39–53. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Koshik, Irene
2002 “Designedly Incomplete Utterances: A Pedagogical Practice for Eliciting Knowledge Displays in Error Correction Sequences.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 35 (3): 277–309.Google Scholar
Lerner, Gene
1996 “On the “Semi-Permeable” Character of Grammatical Units in Conversation: Conditional Entry into the Turn Space of Another Speaker.” In Interaction and Grammar, ed. by Ochs, Elinor, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Sandra A. Thompson, 238–276. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2002 “Turn-Sharing: The Choral Co-Production of Talk-in-Interaction.” In The Language of Turn and Sequence, ed.by Ford, Cecilia E., Fox, Barbara A., and Sandra A. Thompson, 225–256. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2013 “On the Place of Hesitating in Delicate Formulations: A Turn-Constructional Infrastructure for Collaborative Indiscretion.” In Conversational Repair and Human Understanding, ed. by Hayashi, Makoto, Raymond, Geoffrey, and Jack Sidnell, 95–134. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Makino, Seiichi and Michio Tsutsui
1986 A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times.Google Scholar
Masuoka, Takashi
1991 Modaritii no bunpoo [Grammar of Modality]. Tokyo: Kuroshio Shuppan.Google Scholar
Maynard, Douglas W.
1989 “Perspective-Display Sequences in Conversation.” Western Journal of Speech Communication 53: 91–113.Google Scholar
Maynard, Senko K.
1989 Japanese Conversation: Self-Conceptualization through Structure and Interactional Management. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
1990 An Introduction to Japanese Grammar and Communication Strategies. Tokyo: The Japan Times.Google Scholar
1992 “Cognitive and Pragmatic Messages of a Syntactic Choice: The Case of the Japanese Commentary Predicate n(o) da.” TEXT 12 (4): 563–613.Google Scholar
Mori, Junko and Kanae Nakamura
2008 “Negotiating Agreement and Disagreement in Japanese: An Analysis of Designedly Ambiguous.” In Japanese Applied Linguistics: Discourse and Social Perspectives, ed. by Mori, Junko, and Amy S. Ohta, 52–79. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Morita, Emi
2005 Negotiation of Contingent Talk: The Japanese Interactional Particles ne and sa. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Park, Jae-Eun
2009 Turn-Taking Organization for Korean Conversation: With a Conversation Analytic Proposal for the Research and Teaching of Korean Learners of English. Los Angeles, CA: Unpublished doctoral dissertation, UCLA.Google Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita
1984 “Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features Found in Preferred/Dispreferred Turn Shapes.” In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by Atkinson, J. Maxwell, and John Heritage, 57–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1988 “Offering a Candidate Answer: An Information Seeking Strategy.” Communication Monographs 55 (December): 360–373.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey
1987 “On the Preferences for Agreement and Contiguity in Sequences in Conversation.” In Talk and Social Organization, ed. by Button, Graham and J. R. E. Lee, 54–69. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Gail Jefferson
1974 “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language 50 (4): 696–735.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A.
1996 “Turn Organization: One Intersection of Grammar and Interaction.” In Interaction and Grammar, ed. by Ochs, Elinor, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Sandra A. Thompson, 52–123. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2006 “Interaction: The Infrastructure for Social Institutions, the Natural Ecological Niche for Language, and the Arena in which Culture is Enacted.” In Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition, and Human Interaction, ed. by Enfield, Nicholas J., and Stephen C. Levinson, 70–96. Oxford: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
2007 Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Harvey Sacks
1973 “Opening Up Closings.” Semiotica 8: 289–327.Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi
1990 The Languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanya
2008 “Stance, Alignment and Affiliation during Story Telling: Nodding as a Token of Preliminary Affiliation.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (1): 31–57.Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, and Jack Sidnell
(eds) 2005 “Multi-Modal Interaction.” Semiotica 156 (1/4): 1–20.Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, and Federico Rossano
2012 “Mobilizing Response in Interaction: A Compositional View of Questions.” In Questions: Formal, Functional and Interactional Perspectives, ed. by de Ruiter, Jan P., 58–80. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Streeck, Jürgen, Goodwin, Charles, and Curtis LeBaron
(eds) 2011 Embodied Interaction. Language and Body in the Material World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Svennenig, Jan
2015 “Presenting Complex Information in Installments.” Paper presented at Revising Participation: Language and Bodies in Interaction, 24–27 June 2015, University of Basel, Switzerland. [URL].
Tanaka, Hiroko
1999 Turn-Taking in Japanese Conversation: A Study of Grammar and Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
2000 “The Particles ne as a Turn-Management Device in Japanese Conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 32: 1135–1176.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

Arita, Yuki
2021. Temporal realization of multimodally designed enactment in Japanese talk-in-interaction. Asian Languages and Linguistics 2:2 ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo
Floyd, Simeon
2021. Conversation and Culture. Annual Review of Anthropology 50:1 ► pp. 219 ff. DOI logo
NAKAGAWA, Atsushi
2022. Conversation Analysis of Calls in Long-distance Caregiving. Japanese Sociological Review 73:2 ► pp. 136 ff. DOI logo
Oloff, Florence
2022. The Particle Jako (“Like”) in Spoken Czech: From Expressing Comparison to Mobilizing Affiliative Responses. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo
Simone, Monica & Renata Galatolo
2023. The situated deployment of the Italian presentative (e) hai. . ., ‘(and) you have. . .’ within routinized multimodal Gestalts in route mapping with visually impaired climbers. Discourse Studies 25:1 ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 april 2024. 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.