Embodied interaction
Table of contents
Studying interaction as embodied means that, in addition to verbal information, we take into account the contribution of the participants’ bodies. On the one hand, speaking itself is embodied, as language is produced in the vocal tract and with a variety of functional prosodies. On the other hand, we also use gesture, posture, gaze and movement to make sense to each other, often with the support of the materialities in the environment. Embodied interaction analysis centrally targets the question how human beings use their available bodily and material resources to bring about social action that is treated as meaningful by other participants (Streeck, Goodwin and LeBaron 2011). It dissects both the verbal and embodied methods of action formation at various occasions, and thus does not inevitably treat language as the most important vehicle of meaning. This approach accounts for a wider range of human activity, by covering the embodied aspects of everyday conversation, but also by elucidating the role of language in highly embodied activities.
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