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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

Chapter 9
Consecutive clause combinations in instructing activities

Directives and accounts in the context of physical training

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.

Keywords: directives, instructions, accounts, clause combining, action combination, emergent grammar, projection, expansion, prosody, embodiment
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
Published online: 17 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.32.09lin
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