No abstract

In this study, we explore transitions in social interaction as sites for socialization: we discuss the significance of transitions for how participants establish an appropriate orientation to an activity, provide each other opportunities to participate in the activity and make the social order of the activity visible. We draw on ethnomethodological conversation analysis and video recordings in English and Finnish in which families with children engage in the activity of foraging, i.e. picking wild produce.We focus on transitions between what can roughly be described as 'searching' and 'picking', to examine how the timing and length of each are adjusted in relation to local contingencies and how the more experienced participants work in different ways to maintain the less experienced participants' engagement in the foraging. Furthermore, we argue that participants orient to transitions at appropriate points as enabling effective and economical foraging.

The article explores different participant positions that are available to researchers of social interaction during the collection of mobile video data. In the data presented, participants are engaged in outdoor activities that essentially involve some form and amount of mobility. The authors analyse the positions they have adopted in collecting data involving groups of mobile participants. The positions have varied depending on whether the activities allow, or even assume, researchers to draw on some specific participant knowledge. The article focuses on moments of adjustment during which the authors, as researchers collecting data, evidently make decisions about what to record and how to participate in the ongoing activity, and which thus reflect their spontaneous, negotiable and planned participation on site. As researchers of social interaction increasingly draw on data that involve mobility, it is pertinent to consider the possible positions that they may adopt and the practices that they employ in the collection and analysis of such data.

The article explores how social interaction is accomplished through intertwined verbal and bodily conduct, focusing on directive actions that include a second-person imperative form of the Finnish verb katsoa “to look,” typically kato. The study draws on video recordings of various outdoor activities in nature, mostly from family interaction with small children, and employs interactional linguistics and conversation analysis as its analytic framework. The directive kato actions in focus are produced (1) as noticings, to initiate a new course of action by directing the recipient to look at and possibly talk about a target that the speaker treats as newsworthy; (2) as showings, to initiate an evaluative course of action by directing the recipient to look at and align with the speaker’s stance toward the target; or (3) as prompts, to contribute to an ongoing course of action by directing the recipient to do something relevant to or with the target. Apart from the use of kato, the actions differ in their design. In noticings, the target is typically named verbally and pointed at through embodied means, but the participants remain at some distance from it (e.g., kato muurahaispesä tuossa “look an anthill there”). In showings, the participant producing the action typically approaches the recipient with the target in hand, so that the naming of the target is not necessary but, by evaluating the target themselves, the shower explicates how the target should be seen (e.g., kato kuinka jättejä “look how giant {ones}”). In prompts, neither the target nor the intended action is named, but the target is typically indicated by embodied means, for example, by the participants’ approaching and pointing at it, and the intended action is inferable from the participants’ prior conduct (e.g., kato tuossa “look there” and pointing at a berry in the participants’ vicinity when berry picking has been established as relevant). By examining these three grammar-body assemblages, the article uncovers regularities in the co-occurrence of multiple modalities and contributes to new understandings of language use in its natural ecology – in co-present social interaction.

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan puhetoimintoja, joissa esiintyy jokin katsoa-verbin 2. persoonan imperatiivimuodoista, tyypillisesti kato. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytetään keskustelun­analyysia, ja aineistona toimivat videoidut tilanteet luontoilutoiminnasta, kuten marjastuksesta, sienestyksestä ja retkeilystä. Artikkelissa analysoidaan, miten meneillään oleva toiminta ja sen resursseina kieli, osallistujien kehot, tila, liike ja materiaalinen ympäristö vaikuttavat kato-vuorojen muotoiluun ja tulkintaan. Artikkelissa osoitetaan, että kato-vuoroilla on ainakin neljä eri tehtävää sosiaalisessa vuorovaikutuksessa. Valtaosa tutkimusaineiston kato-vuoroista toimii direktiiveinä tai liittyy direktiivisiin tilanteisiin, joissa puhuja ohjaa vastaanottajaa toimimaan tai olemaan toimimatta tietyllä tavalla. Direktiivisillä kato-vuoroilla puhuja ohjaa vastaan­ottajaa joko 1) katsomaan jotain objektia ympäristössä tai 2) tekemään jotain meneillään olevan toiminnan kannalta relevanttia. Tällaiset direktiiviset kato-vuorot eroavat toisistaan niin kielellisen kuin kehollisen muotoilun suhteen: ­kato-­vuoroissa, joilla ohjataan vastaanottajaa katsomaan, huomion kohde nimetään (kato muulahait­petä) ja siihen suuntaudutaan kehollisesti, mutta osallistujat jäävät hieman etäälle siitä. Sen sijaan sellaisissa kato-vuoroissa, joilla osallistujaa ohjataan tekemään jotain muuta kuin katsomaan, ei yleensä nimetä tekemisen kohdetta tai tekemistä ylipäätään vaan kohde merkitään kehollisesti ja tekemistä käsitellään yhteisesti jaettuna meneillään olevan aktiviteetin perusteella (katopas tuosa ohjaa poimimaan marjan). Tutkimus­aineistossa on myös sellaisia kato-vuoroja, joissa kato toimii 3) päivittelyn keinona tai 4) huomion kohdistavana, selittävänä lausumapartikkelina. Tutkimuksessa vuoro­vaikutusta tarkastellaan holistisesti, eli meneillään oleva toiminta ja osallistujien käyttämät multimodaaliset resurssit luovat puitteet sille, miten toimintoja on mahdollista tuottaa ja tulkita.   Kato. An insane amount of lingonberries. Kato as an interactional resource in nature-related activities The article examines actions that include one of the second-person imperative forms of the verb katsoa (‘to look’), typically kato (‘look, see’). Methodologically the study draws on conversation analysis, and the data include video recordings of activities in nature, such as berry picking, mushroom picking and trekking. The article analyses how participants design and interpret turns that include kato on the basis of ongoing activities and available resources, such as language, participants’ bodies, movement, space and the material environment. The article shows that turns including kato have at least four functions in social interaction. In the majority of the cases in the data, kato functions as a directive or is used in a directive context. These turns are used for directing the recipient either 1) to look at some object in the surrounds or 2) to do something relevant in terms of the ongoing activity. Apart from the use of kato, the turns differ in their design: In turns in which kato directs the recipient to look at something, the target is mentioned explicitly (e.g. kato muulahaitpetä ‘look an anthill’) and the participants remain at some distance from it. By contrast, in turns in which kato directs the recipient to do something, the target – or the intended action in general – is not mentioned, but the target is indicated by embodied means and the desired course of action is dealt with as shared by the participants on the basis of their ongoing activity (e.g. katopas tuosa ‘look right there’ is used to direct the recipient to pick a berry). The data also include turns in which kato functions 3) as a resource for general wondering or 4) as an explanatory connective and attention getter. The study approaches interaction holistically, having as its premise that the ongoing activity and the multimodal resources employed by the participants provide the framework for the formation and interpretation of social actions.