ABSTRACT
Many scholars have proposed that the primary site of language use is face-to-face dialogue (e.g., Bavelas, 1990; Bavelas, Hutchinson, Kenwood, & Matheson, 1997; Clark, 1996, pp. 8–10; Fillmore, 1991; Goodwin, 1981; Levinson, 1983; Linell, 2005). Whether within the family, with friends, at work, or in brief conversations with strangers, the vast majority of everyday social exchanges, from mundane to important, take place in person. Moreover, face-to-face dialogue is a child’s first language developmentally, and it is arguably humanity’s first language phylogenetically. This format, therefore, is centrally important to understanding social communication. Face-to-face dialogue has a combination of affordances that make it different from other language formats, such as written text, formal lectures, phone conversations, etc. (Bavelas & Chovil, 2006; Bavelas, Coates, & Johnson, 2002). The present chapter will focus on combining two of these unique features: (1) Face-to-face dialogue includes an interlocutor who can respond reciprocally and in real-time; there is both a requirement to coordinate and the opportunity to collaborate. (2) In face-to-face dialogue, the participants have visible as well as audible resources for social communication, that is, not just words and prosody, but also hand gestures, facial displays, gaze direction and timing, body orientation, and objects in their shared environment. We propose that some non-verbal acts play an important role in the participants’ collaboration, so that the study of these non-verbal acts in dialogue is a promising way to understand basic processes in social communication.
