ISGS panel, multimodal reference under-documented langs

[richard sandoval]

*apologies for cross-posting*

Dear All,

We are putting together a thematic panel on multimodality and reference in under-documented languages for the ISGS 6 conference at UCSD in July (seehttp://isgs.ucsd.edu). A brief description of the proposed panel is below. 


The topic of reference has a long history of study in the social sciences. Recent work at the intersection of linguistics, anthropology and sociology has focused on the formulation and interpretation of reference in conversational interaction as a mutual achievement, especially for how interactants develop and display shared understandings in the organization of discourse (Schegloff 1972, 1996, 2007, Sacks and Schegloff 1979, Fox 1987, Enfield 2006). This work has established the basic features of a system for doing reference in interaction, with most work concentrating on the domain of person reference in English conversation (see Enfield and Stivers 2007). Other work demonstrates that gesture and multimodality play a central role in doing reference in interaction (e.g. Goodwin 2003, Mondada 2011). However, the use of gesture and multimodality in doing reference is an area of research that has remained under-explored, particularly from a cross-linguistic perspective. Building on this body of work, it is now pertinent to extend the empirical coverage to other languages, including small under-documented ones, and to other domains, including place, time, object, action, event, etc. (cf. Hanks 1990, Enfield 2012)

This panel will draw together cutting-edge work on the role that gesture and multimodality play in doing reference across a number of under-documented languages. The panel theme focuses on the use of pointing and other types of gesture with elements of speech in the formulation of of place, person, or other entity reference. Prior research in this area has not only served to describe under-documented languages from a needed perspective but also to call into question typological principles of language, gesture, and interaction that have been based primarily on highly-documented languages, such as English. Exemplary research of this kind includes Haviland 2003, Wilkins 2003, Enfield, Kita, De Ruiter 2007.


If you are interested in submitting an abstract for this panel, please contact:

Rich Sandoval and/or Nick Williams

Richard.Sandoval at Colorado.edu
Nicholas.j.williams at colorado.edu


Rich A. Sandoval
Linguistics PhD Candidate, CU Boulder
Affiliate Faculty, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, MSU Denver

Nicholas J. Williams
Linguistics PhD Candidate, CU Boulder