3 juillet 2024
Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel et al., « Insights from multimodal analysis on longitudinal interview data: the case of I don’t know », HAL-SHS : linguistique, ID : 10670/1.qlqkom
Discourse markers (DM) are usually defined as expressions with little referential meaning but multiple pragmatic functions (Pichler, 2009, p. 561). One such DM is the expression I don’t know (IDK), which is widely used by native speakers and learners alike (Baumgarten & House, 2010; Bybee & Scheibman, 1999). While recent research has focused on the different discursive functions that IDK and its French equivalent ‘je sais pas’ can take (Pekarek Doelher, 2016), another line of studies takes a multimodal approach to this linguistic phenomenon, investigating gaze and gestures that may accompany DMs. In the current study, we investigate the association between IDK, gaze (previously shown to provide clues as to how speakers and listeners manage interactions (Rossano 2012)), and shrugs (frequently associated with the use of IDK (Beaupoil-Hourdel & Morgenstern, 2021).Previous research on the use of shrugs indicates that there are associations between the uses of specific formational components of the shrug (the hands, the arms, the shoulders, or the head) and specific functions across languages (Boutet & Morgenstern, 2019) that also differ depending on the language the speakers use (Morris, 1994). Crosslinguistic effects have indeed been observed in the acquisition of gestural patterns (Beaupoil-Hourdel & Debras, 2017, Marshall, 2021, Gullberg, 2022).As such, do French learners of English appropriate the gestural patterns of their target language over a year abroad? We hypothesize that gestural patterns evolve along with linguistic development and investigate whether there is a transfer effect of L1 gestural patterns in L2 interactions.We used a case-study approach to investigate the evolution of the use of multimodal IDK by one L2 learner of English over a year abroad, a learning context demonstrated to increase DM use (Tavakoli, 2018). Five filmed semi-guided interviews were conducted over the course of 12 months. The resulting 138mn of recordings were transcribed, and 92 instances of IDK were identified. We coded them in ELAN and in an EXCEL grid for pragmatic function, drawing on both linguistic and multimodal cues, taking into consideration the speaker’s body posture, gestures (shrugs and other gestures like headshakes or headnods), gaze and the prosodic contours of their vocal productions. We first used exploratory Multi-Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to identify clusters which illuminate the way DM and lexical IDK are used by the L2 participant: Results show a tendency to phonological reduction, combined with creaky voice, when IDK is used as a discourse marker. Regarding crosslinguistic and developmental effects, our qualitative analysis of shrug production suggests that the participant is influenced by L1 gestural patterns while developing more fluid co-verbal gestures over time abroad.Baumgarten, N., & House, J. (2010). I think and I don’t know in English as lingua franca and native English discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 1184-1200.Beaupoil-Hourdel, P., & Debras, C. (2017). Developing communicative postures: The emergence of shrugging in child communication. LIA, 1(8), 91–118.Beaupoil-Hourdel, P., & Morgenstern, A. (2021). French and British children’s shrugs: A cross-linguistic developmental case-study of a recurrent gesture. Gesture, 20(2), 180 218. Boutet, D., & Morgenstern, A. (2019). A cross-linguistic approach to the formal and functional features of recurrent gestures: Shrugging in 5 languages. ICLC 15 Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Cognitive Linguistics, Nishinomiyia, Japan.Bybee, J., & Scheibman, J. (1999). The effect of usage on degrees of constituency: The reduction of don’t in English. Linguistics, 37(4), 575-596.Gullberg, M. (2022). Why Second Language Acquisition of sign languages matters to general SLA research. Language, Interaction and Acquisition, 13(2), 231‑253. https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.22022.gulMarshall, C. R., Bel, A., Gulamani, S., & Morgan, G. (2021). How are signed languages learned as second languages? Language and Linguistics Compass, 15(1), e12403. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12403Morris, D. (1994). Bodytalk: A World Guide to Gestures. Random House.Pekarek Doehler, S. (2016). More than an epistemic hedge: French je sais pas ‘I don’t know’ as a resource for the sequential organization of turns and actions. Journal of Pragmatics, 106, 148-162.Pichler, H. (2009). The functional and social reality of discourse variants in a northern English dialect: I DON’T KNOW and I DON’T THINK compared. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(4), 561-596.Rossano, F. (2012). Gaze behavior in face-to-face interaction. Doctoral Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen. Tavakoli, P. (2018). L2 development in an intensive study abroad EAP context. System, 72, 62-74.