Team 1: RESOURCES

LINGUISTIC AND NON-LINGUISTIC MEANS OF ACTION CONSTRUCTION
The Resources team investigates the nature and use of linguistic and other communicative resources as a basis and a means for building intersubjectivity in interaction. The research interests combine analyses of specific linguistic forms (such as the clause) with their analysis in specific interactional locations (such as position in a turn) and settings (such as a classroom).

The team works in the following areas of research:

UNITS OF LANGUAGE AND INTERACTION
In this subproject we investigate conversational data from a typologically and genetically diverse set of languages to determine what kinds of units participants in conversation can be shown to orient to, and what kinds of units are relevant for crosslinguistic comparison. We critically examine the usefulness of traditional linguistic categories for the analysis of social interaction. Our particular foci are the intersubjectively constructed emergence of units such as the clause and clause combination, categories such as the conditional and the imperative, structural phenomena such as word-order and actions such as requesting and responding.

Researchers: Anna Vatanen, Jan Lindström, Ritva Laury
Collaborators: Tsuyoshi Ono (University of Alberta Edmonton), Ryoko Suzuki (Keio University), Sandra Thompson (University of California, Santa Barbara), Michael Ewing (University of Melbourne), Leelo Keevallik (University of Linköping), Marja-Liisa Helasvuo (University of Turku), Elise Kärkkäinen (University of Oulu), Peter Auer (University of Freiburg)
VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL SHAPING OF ACTIONS

Using data from both everyday and institutional interaction, we focus on the interplay of language and bodily conduct and sequentiality in the formation of social action. In classroom data, we examine the treatment and sequential placement of student questions and teachers’ evaluative turns and their use as a pedagogical resource. Another focus is the positionally sensitive shaping of translatory turns in multilingual conversation. We also investigate the role of embodied conduct in creating intersubjective orientation to concrete objects and accomplishing reference to them, as well as in the timing of turns in conversation. We have also recently initiated a project focusing on the role of prosody in the design of questions across languages. New research foci to be initiated are embodied responses to requests and the construction of ongoing experience as a physical activity and its use as a basis for shared understanding.

Researchers: Saija Merke, Giovanni Rossi, Martina Huhtamäki, Katariina Harjunpää, Jan Lindström, Ritva Laury, Mirka Rauniomaa, Ilkka Arminen
Collaborators: Catrin Norrby (University of Stockholm), Chiara Monzoni
THE SELF AND OTHER IN INTERACTION

We examine the role of epistemic stance and asymmetries in creating and maintaining intersubjectivity. This includes the study of receipts of new information, disclaimers of epistemic access as well as claims of epistemic access: we ask specifically, in what way do these resources and practices contribute to expressions of communion/autonomy and affiliation/disaffiliation in interaction? The double-barreled nature of classroom questions as noticings and as requests for confirmation is another focus here. Further, through an examination of self-reference, we hope to contribute to our understanding of how the self and the interpretations about the self are constructed, negotiated, and sustained in ongoing talk and interaction.

Researchers: Anna Vatanen, Jan Lindström, Ritva Laury, Helga Hilmisdottir, Saija Merke, Pilvi Heinonen, Laura Visapää.
Collaborators: Simona Pekarek Doehler (University of Neuchâtel), Yael Maschler (University of Haifa), Marja-Liisa Helasvuo (University of Turku)