Cognitive pragmatics as multimodal pragmatics: an analysis of intersubjective positioning in spoken dialogue
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2025-3-4
- Pages
- 54-72
Abstract
The study follows the tenets of cognitive multimodal pragmatics, focusing on some specific features of intersubjective positioning with gestures in Russian dialogic speech. It is hypothesized that gestures with recurring formal features (type and direction of movement, palm configuration, etc.) exhibit certain regularities when used with pragmatic markers of intersubjective positioning, such as agreement and disagreement, viewpoint blending, reference to the subject of positioning, opposition of viewpoints, and direct or indirect evidentiality. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of video recordings annotated with the help of ELAN software have revealed that offering gestures (open-palm, directed towards the interlocutor) are the most frequently used with all markers of intersubjectivity. However, statistically significant correlations between the gesture types and the (sub)types of intersubjectivity were found only for pointing gestures for agreement vs. disagreement, and for binary mirror gestures for merging viewpoints vs. opposing viewpoints. Namely, pointing gestures are significantly more often associated with agreement, while binary gestures are more commonly linked to the opposition of viewpoints. The approach enables the identification of gestures with regular positioning functions in dialogue (i. e., recurrent gestures). From a cognitive perspective, certain features of embodied cognition in dialogic communication have been identified. The findings confirm the significance of the bodily orientation of the speakersas related to the viewpoints they express. This is achieved through several mimetic schemas the gestures are based upon: demonstration of an object, establishing physical contact with the interlocutor, and localization or placement of objects in space.