Betz Emma, Gubina Alexandra
Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Leibniz Institute for the German Language, Mannheim, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2025 Apr 28;16:1509988. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1509988. eCollection 2025.
Taking a stance toward events, objects, and other persons is fundamental to human interaction. We investigate one specific body movement that is involved in stance-taking in interaction: a shoulder lift, realized as either a one-sided or a two-sided movement. Using multimodal Conversation Analysis, we trace how interactants employ shoulder lifts in different positions within responsive turns in various interaction types in German. This study reveals how the actions to which shoulder lifts contribute are bound to specific turn and sequence positions. We demonstrate how shoulder lifts are used for disclaiming the speaker's accountability or responsibility by framing their turn as non-expandable or non-expansion-worthy, thus curtailing the sequence. Furthermore, the study shows how participants orient to different types of shoulder movements, i.e., lifts with one or with both shoulders, as accomplishing different interactional tasks. By showing that shoulder lifts are a positionally sensitive resource for speakers in building stances, we showcase the potential of conversation analytic and interactional linguistic approaches to further our understanding of multimodal stance-taking in interaction.
对事件、物体和他人采取某种立场是人际互动的基础。我们研究一种在互动中采取立场时涉及的特定身体动作：肩部抬起，表现为单侧或双侧动作。运用多模态会话分析，我们追踪德语使用者在不同互动类型的回应轮次中如何在不同位置运用肩部抬起动作。本研究揭示了肩部抬起动作所促成的行为如何与特定的轮次和序列位置相关联。我们展示了肩部抬起动作如何通过将说话者的话轮构建为不可扩展或不值得扩展，来免除说话者的责任，从而缩短序列。此外，研究还表明参与者如何将不同类型的肩部动作，即单肩或双肩抬起，视为完成不同的互动任务。通过表明肩部抬起动作是说话者构建立场时对位置敏感的资源，我们展示了会话分析和互动语言学方法在进一步理解互动中的多模态立场采取方面的潜力。
