Leelo Keevallik, Linköping University

2010-2014

In this project I have analyzed grammar as part of human action. I looked at how speakers coordinate their body with language in real time, in order to achieve mutual understanding. I thereby took a theoretical stance for the old but occasionally forgotten idea that language is intertwined with the rest of human behavior, and that it is difficult to separate grammar from its use. More specifically, I showed how speakers of primarily Estonian and Swedish, but also English and occasionally Finnish, coordinate grammar and embodied demonstrations in a way that would hardly be characterized as "correct" in grammar books but that is easy to interpret in a real-life context. I have argued that these syntactic-bodily practices constitute distinct patterns and can thus be described on a par with other rules of language.

When studying the coordination of body and grammar, I primarily relied on video-recorded dance classes. In these classes I also discovered that the teachers produce numerous vocal effects while teaching. Vocal effects are used either to imitate the music or to represent the feeling a dancer needs to have in her body when she accomplishes a move. In writing, the effects look like dobi do do: ba dah. Their meaning can only be appreciated in the context of teaching and learning a specific step in the dance. Sound stretches, pace and the characteristics of the sounds are meaningful for the students in the class, e.g. uaaa most probably means a longer and more fluid move than za ki da. I have shown how these accompanying sounds can constitute syntactic elements in a clause as well as develop into actual words during a class. The link between a vocal form and its function becomes conventionalized and an item such as the zuppum becomes a shortcut reference to a specific step, understood jointly by the participants. I have thereby been able to observe the emergence of words in real time.

The most important theoretical contribution of the project is the re-conceptualization of grammar as a temporal phenomenon, as a tool for projecting continuations of various lengths. A projection can be realized by either grammatical or embodied means. The latter finding has led to an adjusted definition of the turn-constructional unit - a central concept in interactional linguistics - which has hitherto only embraced strictly linguistic elements. I have argued that body movements can also be used to construct units in talk. The project has essentially problematized how we construct and complete turns. Where turns can be completed by embodied demonstrations, the others' opportunity to take the next turn should be organized in a different way than has been accounted for so far. This is consequential for how we describe basic conversational mechanisms, one cornerstone of society. Beyond dance classes, where body movements are the target of the activity, I have used video-recordings of a workplace meeting in building the argument. Even at meetings the participants occasionally use illustrative movements and vocal effects to make sense for their interlocutors. Through a detailed analysis of body movements I have been able to show how grammar is temporally tied to the body as well as how phenomena that have traditionally been considered sequential can occasionally be synchronous.

The two most important publications and publication strategies
All the eight papers in the project are in English, published in international journals or by publishing houses with a good reputation. The paper "The interdependence of bodily demonstrations and clausal syntax" (Research on Language and Social Interaction 46) presents a systematic summary of the syntactic patterns that enable an embodied demonstration in the middle of an ongoing clause. Here I have shown how sense-making is accomplished by coordinating body movements with grammar and argued that the resulting syntactic-bodily patterns should be given their rightful place among other widely acknowledged ones in grammars.

Another paper that has already resulted in new offers of collaboration is "Having a ball: Immaterial objects in dance instruction" that was published in the joint volume Interacting with Objects: Language, Materiality, and Social Activity (John Benjamins). Here I used interaction analytic method to reveal a multimodal practice of producing metaphors. In the focus case the dance teachers explain the technique of leading and following in a couple dance by comparing it to throwing a ball, an assumedly familiar bodily activity to the students. The analysis exemplifies how new phenomena can be discovered if language is not mechanically abstracted from its activity context or separated from space and the body. Moreover, the paper expands the boundaries of what can be considered a metaphor, which is originally a literary object.

The rest of the papers illuminate, in various ways, temporal regularities in the deployment of grammar and the body, in sequences of action (as in linguistic directive - embodied compliance), in the form of specific emerging structures (as in contrastive constructions), or when it comes to reference (as in the use of the deictic word 'here' to point at the moving body while dancing). The international profile of the publications is evidenced by the place of publication. Collaborators in the edited volumes come from the whole of Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, the US, Australia, and other places. Importantly, I would like to point out my co-authoring with Mathias Broth at Linköping University where I chose to place the project. Broth works in the field of ethnomethodology. In the joint paper we studied sequences of verbal instruction and embodied response in dance classes. This collaboration has widened my methodological toolbox and thereby also my contacts with yet another research field.

In accordance with the RJ guidelines, I have aimed at open access publishing. The above paper in the journal Research on Language and Social Interaction is freely accessible, as open access was purchased within the project. The three remaining journal articles are published in parallel on the university library webpage and are thereby also publicly accessible in the final version. Project resources were not sufficient for further purchases of open access. Regardless of the less favorable conditions for chapters in volumes, I did not choose to refrain from publishing when asked for contributions. Joint volumes presenting consolidated fields are popular in the humanities. There is often intense collaboration involved in preparing such volumes, with lively discussions at thematic workshops and in the elaborate and demanding process of peer-review. For example, the book Interacting with Objects only accepted one third of the proposed chapters. It would not be wise to exclude oneself from these important arenas, especially as a younger researcher, as this way of working in particular helps to build and sustain networks. It also generates new collaboration. Furthermore, in recent years book projects have become a collaborative means to break new ground at large international conferences by presenting coherent panels. Collaborating in selective book projects is thus a perfect way to move beyond what is already known. The volumes Interaction and Mobility and Interacting with Objects constitute perfect examples of this kind of cooperation. All the volumes in which I have chosen to publish will furthermore be widely marketed by the publishing houses and are very likely to become partly available on Google Books.

New research questions
The project has generated several new research questions, regarding meaning-making with linguistic-bodily (metaphorical) processes on the one hand, and the temporal nature of language on the other. Over the last hundred years grammar has mostly been studied as a hierarchical system that speakers employ for constructing correct sentences. The fact that these sentences are uttered bit-by-bit in real time has been treated as an issue of speech production. The grammatical aspect of temporality has recently been addressed as a sequential matter, in that speakers may retrospectively add items to a syntactic structure whenever a recipient displays a misunderstanding, distrust, or other non-alignment. In my future research I would like to look more deeply into the structure of the clause and possibly even inside complex words to find out whether anything at this level is motivated by interaction. In order to address this question, I recently arranged a panel at the conference Nordisco at Jyväskylä together with a colleague Jan Lindström from Helsinki University. We will continue targeting the question whether word order, a widely recognized typological parameter in languages, can be correlated with the actions that speakers accomplish in conversation.

Publications

1.    L. Keevallik (accepted): Linking performances: The temporality of contrastive grammar. In Linking in Grammar and Action, E. Couper-Kuhlen, R. Laury (Eds.). Helsinki: Finnish Literary Society.
2.    L. Keevallik 2015: Coordinating the temporalities of talk and dance. In: Temporality in Interaction, A. Deppermann & S. Günthner (Eds.). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pp. 309–336.
3.    L. Keevallik 2014: Having a ball: Immaterial objects in dance instruction. In: Interacting with Objects: Language, Materiality, and Social Activity, M. Nevile, P. Haddington, T. Heinemann & M. Rauniomaa (Eds.). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pp. 245–264.
4.    M. Broth, L. Keevallik 2014: Getting ready to move as a couple: Accomplishing mobile formations in a dance class. Space and Culture 17(2). Pp. 107–121.
5.    L. Keevallik 2014: Turn organization and bodily-vocal demonstrations. Journal of Pragmatics 65. Pp. 103–120.
6.    L. Keevallik 2013: The interdependence of bodily demonstrations and clausal syntax. Research on Language and Social Interaction 46(1). Pp. 1–21.
7.    L. Keevallik 2013: Here in time and space: Decomposing movement in dance instruction. In: Interaction and Mobility: Language and the Body in Motion, P. Haddington, L. Mondada & M. Nevile (Eds.). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. Pp. 345–370.
8.    L. Keevallik 2012: Compromising progressivity: ‘No’-prefacing in Estonian. Pragmatics 22(1). Pp. 119–146.

Konferensföredrag

1.    L. Keevallik: The temporality of grammar and its coordination with the body. Grammar and Context: New Approaches to the Uralic Languages 4, Tartu University, 05–07.06.13 (Plenary)
2.    M. Broth & L. Keevallik: Getting ready to move as a couple: Accomplishing mobile formations in a dance class. Nordisco – The Nordic Interdisciplinary Conference on Discourse and Interaction, Linköping University, 21–23.11.12
3.    L. Keevallik: Manipulating invisible objects in dance instruction. Objects in Interaction, Helsinki, 4–6.05.12
4.    L. Keevallik: Quoting the body: The case of dance instruction. Quoting now and then, Augsburg University, 19–21.04.12
5.    L. Keevallik: Osynliga föremål [Invisible objects]. OFTI – Områdesforskning för tal och interaktion 29, Mälardalens Högskola, Eskilstuna, 15–16.09.11
6.    L. Keevallik: Syntax for embodied demonstrations. IPrA – 12th International Pragmatics Conference, University of Manchester, 3–8.07.11
7.    L. Keevallik: Formats of challenge. Social Action Formats, Oulu, 17–19.05.11
8.    L. Keevallik: No meaning without context: negative particle in action. I-mean@uwe2: Context and Meaning, University of the West of England, Bristol, 13–15.04.11
9.    L. Keevallik: Immobility technology: online dance classes. Interactional Mobilities, Linköping University, 7–9.04.11

Panel organization
1.    Local achievement of units in interaction, with Xiaoting Li. IPrA – 13th International Pragmatics Conference, New Delhi, 9–13.09.13
2.    Emerging units in embodied interaction. IPrA – 12th International Pragmatics Conference, University of Manchester, 3–8.07.11

http://www.liu.se/ikk/medarbetare/leelo-keevallik?l=sv