Multimodality in own communication management

Abstract

This study studies how gestures (here defined in a wide sense, including all body movements which have a communicative function) are used for Own Communication Management (OCM), an interesting and not completely well described part of the language system. OCM concerns how a speaker continuously manages the planning and execution of his/her own communication and is a basic function in face-to-face interaction. It has two main functions, i.e. “choice ” and “change”. The study investigates how much of OCM involves gestures and whether there is a difference between choice and change OCM in this respect. It also concerns what kinds of gestures are used in OCM and what the relation is between vocal and gestural OCM. Some of the main findings are that roughly 50 % of all speech based OCM cooccurs with gestures and that most of the OCM involving gestures (about 90%) is choice directed. Gestures occurring with OCM can illustrate the content of a sought after word, but also more generally induce word activation. They can also signal to an interlocutor that the speaker needs time. Gestures are often multifunctional and, thus, both choice and change are often integrated with more interactive functions. A final observation is that gestural OCM either precedes or occurs simultaneously with verbal OCM.

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