Embodied interaction: multimodality, body and cognition in the analysis of conversations involving individuals with Alzheimer’s

Abstract

This article aims to explore, theoretically and analytically, how do people build the interactional spaces through the simultaneous use of multiple semiotic resources with quite different proprieties. For this, we bring some theoretical references in the embodied interaction studies (STRECK et al., 2011), i.e., an action (verbal or otherwise) is constructed and finished thanks to an ecology (GOODWIN, 2010) of sign systems, structurally distinct from itself but closely related (e.g. gaze, posture, orientation, body). We move beyond this framework to transcribe, to describe and to analyze two conversations involving individuals with Alzheimer’s. Data were extracted from the DALI audiovisual corpus. Inspired by the video analysis (MONDADA, 2008, KNOBLAUCH et al., 2012), the analytical focus is on so-called minimum gestures found in these interactions and on a synchrony between talk and gestures. The analyses show that these interactions occur, despite the conditions imposed by the pathology, as a collective temporal, spatial, body and material organization. This discussion may throw more light upon some issues as the relationship between language and body and a reflection on a multiple cognitive resources that are or can be mobilized and analyzed in building our talk-in-interaction.