ABSTRACT
Our field has come a very long way since the time when it was common to make a categorical distinction between “verbal” and “nonverbal” communication and to use ill-formed expressions such as “body language,” even “nonverbal language,” to conceptualize contributions of body motion to social interaction and communication. We no longer reserve scrutiny of body motion and action for cases where talk, considered alone, appears ambiguous and inconclusive, but routinely (e.g., in our data sessions) study talk and bodily action in their mutual embeddedness and contextualization. We are no longer afraid that, once we turn our attention to the bodily interaction of conversation participants, we might get lost in a sea of data. Instead, our observations are informed by a large and growing body of empirical knowledge about the contextualization of talk within embodied frameworks for participation (Auer & diLuzio, 1992); we know about the roles of gaze in the organization of turn taking (Goodwin, 1981a) and how interactional axes are established and sustained (Kendon, 1970); we also understand how gestures are incorporated in turns-attalk (Schegloff, 1984; Streeck & Knapp, 1992). We have even begun to move beyond the realm of “communication proper” to investigate the orchestration of talk and communicative acts of the body within trajectories of practical, instrumental (rather than primarily communicative) action (Goodwin, 1996; Heath & Luff, 1992).
