Article

Tempo, Auftakt, Levels of Actions, and Practice: Rhythms in Ordinary Interactions

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Abstract

This article builds on Scollon’s work on rhythm in ordinary talk (1981, 1982) and mediated discourse analysis (primarily 1998 and 2001) extending his work by utilizing multimodal interaction analysis (MIA) (Norris 2004) as the methodological framework. With multimodal transcripts of everyday interactions from grooming a horse to a workplace interaction and two boys painting Easter eggs, the article first illustrates Scollon’s notion of tempo, then discusses the new findings of Auftakt (offbeat or prelude taken from musicology) and that rhythm in chains of lower-level action may cross modal boundaries, before investigating a micro-medium-macro link. This micro-medium-macro link in everyday interaction is then explored through the analysis of the complexity of rhythm in everyday interaction by analysing an example of a father playing ball with his two-year old son. Here, it is demonstrated how multimodal rhythms are superimposed from chains of lower-level actions to chains of higher-level actions and to practices. Further, these superimposed rhythms are shown to take on a different tempo at each level. The article ends with the claim that rhythm, as Scollon thought, to a large extent structures ordinary interaction; but, as discussed throughout, and Scollon would have agreed, it is MIA that allows us to analyse the multimodal complexity.

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... It is worth noting that the practice of transcribing embodied actions alongside the rhythm of speech is a common research practice in existing multimodal rhythm analysis (e.g. Hood, 2011;Norris, 2009), and this paper will follow this methodological approach. ...
... The multimodal synchronies in the interaction appear crucial in construing a sense of rhythmic coordination across different participants and different semiotic resources in communicative practice. This finding aligns with Norris (2009), Deppermann (2013 and Mondada (2018) who argue that rhythms can be produced both within and across turns. In the analysis of daily conversation, Norris (2009) demonstrates how the embodied hand-arm movement of another speaker can reproduce the rhythm of speech by one speaker. ...
... This finding aligns with Norris (2009), Deppermann (2013 and Mondada (2018) who argue that rhythms can be produced both within and across turns. In the analysis of daily conversation, Norris (2009) demonstrates how the embodied hand-arm movement of another speaker can reproduce the rhythm of speech by one speaker. This paper finds further multimodal rhythmic patterns in classroom interaction; that is, another speaker can silently participate in the ongoing conversation by synchronizing their embodied actions, as a transition in space or as a shift in gaze and body orientation, with the speech rhythm of one speaker, as shown in Excerpt 3 and Excerpt 4. The multimodal analysis also demonstrates that while each semiotic action might operate with different temporalities, they are finely coordinated and synchronize to different degrees with the rhythm of speech to constitute a higher level of pedagogic practice and formulate a coherent lesson. ...
Article
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A continuing challenge for scholars working with multimodal educational research is to devise theoretical and methodological tools that can effectively navigate the complexity and emergent meaning when different semiotic resources interact. This paper demonstrates how rhythm, as an integration principle, coordinates the interaction of speech and embodied action in classroom settings at multi-scalar temporalities. Transcription designs are also devised to capture and visualize the patterns of multimodal rhythmic interaction. Drawing on a social semiotic theorization of rhythm, the paper conducts nuanced multimodal analyses of video data documenting teacher-student embodied interaction. The paper first reports four types of multimodal rhythmic patterns in classroom interaction, showcasing how rhythms coordinate across participants and semiotic resources. It then demonstrates how the tempo of the speech rhythmically structures the embodied actions at different time scales, resulting in multimodal synchronies that are semantically motivated. Finally, the paper reveals that the multiple actions in a pedagogic practice, while themselves rhythmical, may not always be rhythmically integrated with speech. The paper contributes to existing studies of speech-action interplay by developing theoretical and methodological tools to capture and visualize their interactions. Observations developed in this paper can also potentially inform pedagogic practices that involve the co-deployment of speech and embodied action. click https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1kKYp1OE9Ha5gf to read and download the article for free before February 14, 2025.
... Norris (2019), building on Scollon's work (1998a), defines practice as an action with history. To be able to align with one another, social actors must share practices (Norris, 2011). Sight translation can be understood as a practice of reading aloud, which is a social practice with some embedded history not necessarily shared. ...
... Certain actions have a patterning effect on interaction, such as background music, in which interlocutors align with the beat. Alignment as a phenomenon in communication has been studied in linguistics with a focus on verbal alignment and in sociological studies with a focus on proximity (distance) (Norris, 2011). Norris (2011) argues that rhythm can also be seen at the level of practices; when people engage in practices with a mutual understanding of these, they know what they are expected to contribute with and when (Norris, 2011). ...
... Alignment as a phenomenon in communication has been studied in linguistics with a focus on verbal alignment and in sociological studies with a focus on proximity (distance) (Norris, 2011). Norris (2011) argues that rhythm can also be seen at the level of practices; when people engage in practices with a mutual understanding of these, they know what they are expected to contribute with and when (Norris, 2011). ...
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... world. This element is present in daily actions as observed in speech and body movements made by the human being [72]. On the one hand, there is a social synchrony between human movements. ...
... The tempo is an underlying social interaction organiser [73]. On this basis, a study [72] shows that two individuals in contact tend to synchronise their movements and they reach to establish a 675 common beat pattern. Tempos are also observed in verbal discourse, for example when a question is posed and an answer is provided. ...
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... Children perceive better the responses that they receive from the exterior through a constant beat, allowing giving logical sense to their world. This element is present in daily actions as observed in speech and body movements made by the human being (Norris, 2009). On the one hand, there is a social synchrony between human movements; the tempo is an underlying social interaction organizer (Scollon, 1982). ...
... On the one hand, there is a social synchrony between human movements; the tempo is an underlying social interaction organizer (Scollon, 1982). On this basis, Norris (2009) shows that two individuals in contact tend to synchronize their movements and they reach to establish a common beat pattern. Tempos are also observed in verbal discourse, for example when a question is posed and an answer is provided. ...
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... Multimodality is a broad theoretical concept that comprises several methodological frameworks. In general, multimodal theories consider that interaction between participants occurs through a combination of different communicative resources or "communication modes" (Norris, 2004(Norris, , 2009, or, in the words of Stivers and Sidnell (2005: 2): "Participants [in interaction] encounter a steady stream of meaningful facial expressions, gestures, body postures, head movements, words, grammatical constructions, and prosodic contours." ...
Book
The increasing practice of remote interpreting (RI) by telephone and video link has profoundly changed the ways in which interpreting services are being delivered. Although clinical research on RI has reported positive results, empirical research in other settings, such as legal contexts, has demonstrated that RI can affect the quality of interpreter-mediated communication. This book investigates the possible effects of using RI on the quality of healthcare interpreting. Central to the research design are three series of simulated interpreter-mediated doctor–patient encounters, each involving a different interpreter and using three different interpreting methods: face-to-face interpreting, telephone interpreting and video interpreting. These sessions were video recorded, transcribed and annotated according to categories previously established in interpreting studies. First, quantitative analyses of miscommunication and interaction management were carried out to identify potential relationships between message equivalence issues and interactional issues and to establish the possible influence of environmental and technological factors. These data were submitted to comparative, qualitative analyses, which were triangulated with the findings from the participants’ perceptions, collected by means of thirty post-simulation interviews. The insights generated by this work are highly relevant for all users of RI to anticipate and overcome communication problems.
... Once we have produced transcripts of pertinent excerpts from our video data, we engage with methodological tools that are relevant for the data pieces such as modal density (Norris 2004a), modal configuration (Norris 2009a), the foregroundbackground continuum of attention/awareness (Norris 2004a;2008), semantic/pragmatic means (Norris 2004a), levels of action (Norris 2009b), scales of action (Norris 2017b), agency (Norris 2005;Pirini, 2017), or the site of engagement (Scollon 1998(Scollon , 2001Norris, 2004aNorris, , 2019Norris, , 2020Norris and Jones 2005). Here again, we rely on audio-visual technology without, however, favouring any one kind. ...
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... multimodality) and in the direction of delineating what it is that we are examining (moving the research interest beyond the instance that researchers may find relevant). Modal density, it is shown, is achieved through either intense or complex usages of modes, resulting in rhythm and pace of speech as well as rhythm and pace of other modes (Norris 2009). ...
Chapter
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... Therefore the particular proxemic relationship with Sean that Eleanor produces through layout and furniture is of durable materiality. Layout and furniture are intimately linked to proxemic relationships, and proxemics is durable in similar ways (Norris 2010). Eleanor could stand up and move around the room. ...
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... Children perceive better the responses that they receive from the exterior through a constant beat, allowing giving logical sense to their world. This element is present in daily actions as observed in speech and body movements made by the human being [9]. On the one hand, there is a social synchrony between human movements; the tempo is an underlying social interaction organizer [10]. ...
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Multimodal interaction analysis (Norris, 2004) is a holistic methodological framework that allows the analyst to integrate the verbal with the nonverbal, and to integrate these with material objects and the environment as they are being used by individuals acting and interacting in the world.Keywords:discourse analysis;pragmatics;research methods in applied linguistics;sociolinguistics
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