Depictive Hand Gestures as Candidate Understandings

This article uses multimodal CA to analyze depictive hand gestures that are used to check understanding of the co-participant's preceding action. Drawing on data from cooking and farming interactions, the analysis scrutinizes how depictive gestures come to be treated as other-initiations of repair. The analysis shows that relevant factors in this are: (a) the gesture's design, i.e., its form and movement in relation to the material ecology of the interaction, including relevant objects; (b) the gesture's position and timing in the unfolding sequence; (c) the embodied participation framework, including the body positions and gaze patterns of all participants; and (d) the participants' shared knowledge and understanding of the broader activity context, including their familiarity with the ingredients and dishes in-the-making. The analysis contributes to research on gestural depiction in human meaning making and to the study of embodiment in repair organization. The data are in Finnish with English translations.

Automated summary

This article uses multimodal conversation analysis to examine how depictive hand gestures are used to check understanding in interactions. The analysis focuses on factors such as the design of the gestures, their position and timing, the embodied participation framework, and the participants' shared knowledge of the broader activity context. The findings contribute to the understanding of gestural depiction and embodiment in repair organization.