• The Conference
  • Home
  • Programme
  • Venue & directions
  • Organizing Committee
  • Scientific Committee
  • Exhibitors & sponsors
  • Satellite events
  • Conference Party
• Past & future
  • Previous symposia
  • Finland 2014
  • Spain 2016
• About FU Berlin
  • University homepage
  • Humanities at FU

Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 252

Part of Session 115: Discursive Construction of Emotion in Multilingual Interaction (Other abstracts in this session)

Display of punctual affect in the performance of perseverance

Authors: Hauser, Eric (1,2)
Submitted by: Hauser, Eric (University of Electro-Communications, Japan)

This presentation analyzes how gesture is used with talk to display affective stance in the face of trouble. Though the talk and gesture unfold temporally, the display of affect is designed as punctual. The data are drawn from more than four hours of video-recorded discussions among Japanese university students. The students are participating in these discussions because this is what they have been assigned to do in a university EFL class. The discussions are conducted mostly in English.

The presentation focuses on two cases. In the first, a student has difficulty fully articulating a point that supports her argument. Rather than abandon this point, she restarts it and brings it to completion. Upon its completion, in conjunction with the final word of her turn, she claps one time, which, together with the design of the talk, marks the completion. By restarting and bringing to completion the point that she has been having difficulty articulating, this student perseveres in the face of trouble. The single clap at completion displays an affective stance towards this completion, which may be glossed as satisfaction with the successful outcome. In the second, one student is maintaining an argumentative position with which the other three students are in disagreement. Following the articulation of a point by one of these other students, this student presents a counter-argument. She starts the counter-argument with one key word, during the articulation of which she hits the table with her hand. This student is persevering with her argument in the face of disagreement with the others in her discussion group. While the others receive help in articulating their arguments from those who agree with them, this student finds herself having to articulate her arguments on her own. By hitting the table as she articulates a key word of her counter-argument, she displays an affective stance which may be glossed as refusal to give up. The other students respond to this display with laughter, while one of them also voices encouragement through a formulaic expression in Japanese accompanied by a gesture.

The act of clapping and the act of hitting the table each has a temporal structure. However, they are designed as punctual. The former consists of a single hand clap, while the latter consists of a single strike. This can be understood as constructing the affect as also punctual. The satisfaction in the first case is displayed as satisfaction at the point of success. The refusal to give up in the second case is displayed as such refusal at the point of launching a counter-argument.

It might be assumed that these students have little or no stake in what they are doing. Their only reason for participating in these discussions is that this is what they have been assigned to do. How they interact, though, indicates that this assumption may not be correct. In particular, in the face of various troubles, these students persevere. The display of punctual affect is one resource through which this perseverance may be performed.