The International Conference on Conversation Analysis 2023, in Brisbane Australia, has arrived! The non-lexicals team has quite a number of different contributions, summarized and linked here:
Workshop: Keevallik on Affiliation.
Panel: Hofstetter & Keevallik have organized a panel on Strain in interaction, thanks to the following wonderful contributors:
Misao Okada – Japanese turn-initial particle, hai, in instruction-compliance sequences
Okada discusses the use of the particle ‘hai’ in Japanese in boxing instructions, specifically as a component in instruction of ‘hai’+suggested movement. She argues that it is used to structure the movement on behalf of the boxer, even when the boxer knows what the next movement should be. ‘Hai’ acts as a transition marker, shifting from one bodily configuration to another. Potentially also a way that the instructor parses the boxer’s movements into trajectories or components, out of the naturally fluid and unbroken reality of the movement.
Iris Nomikou & Emily Hofstetter – Strain sounds in infants
Infants produce strain sounds from earliest moments, in part because they arise from the body’s motion. Parents recognize and respond to infant strain, such as reaching or exerting muscles to move. These sequences are some of the first ways infants are socialized into sound and the body’s movements as meaningful, suggesting these are critical for language development Parents can ratify by acknowledging apparent strain (oh yes, so strong), give candidate understandings (do you want to sit up), or second pair parts (no you can’t sit up now), the latter of which fully assume a clear and evident action from the infant.
Eiko Yasui – Vocalization of effort and force as a device for coordination: A Japanese interjection Yoisho in instructions of a physical activity
Yoisho is used to indicate ongoing relevance of force or effort, highlighting an ongoing physical sensation (and engagement). This makes it very useful instruction: it can be used to highlight with the voice what is happening with the body, or what should be happening in the student’s body. Instructors embed yoisho (it is not a response cry) syntactically, in ongoing descriptions & instructions, including on behalf of and during student production of action.
Adrian Kerrison – It Hurts to Watch: How sports crowds use pain sounds to comment on sequences of play
Most crowd cheers at sports events are based on projecting events in the game & coordinating joint starts to those cheers, but response cries are more spontaneous reactions that are not similarly coordinatable. The response cries, especially strain-related sounds, occur with events that are as-of-yet inconclusive. The crowd orients to needing to show attention to a play, but if the play (or its consequences) is not yet done or the play has complex implications, these “non-definitive noticings” allow crowd to attend but withhold alignment. The cheers & applause often occur after the response cry, once coordination & alignment are more possible.
Edward Reynolds – The sequential organization of effort display vocalizations versus post-effort vocalizations in the sport of powerlifting
Reynolds demonstrated how powerlifters organize effort displays through vocalizations, asking what about these sounds are taken up, and what is disregarded or civilly disattended. In particular, a mismatch between sound and difficulty of activity is accountable, including both for silence with very difficult moves and overdoing it for easy moves, though this accountability can be personalized according to members’ knowledge of specific co-exercisers. The release after strain is both a physiological necessity, as the air in the body has to escape in some way, and provides an opportunity to assess how the strain/move was accomplished.
Papers: These are the various papers from the team, excluding those above in the panel on strain (Kerrison, Nomikou w. Hofstetter)
Agnes Löfgren – From describing to depicting: the interactional history of proposals at opera rehearsals. In Panel on Interactional Histories.
Keevallik, L. & Wiggins, S. – Sounds of disgust: Young children’s non-lexical orientations to food during shared mealtimes. In Panel on Exploring food practices: Body, materiality, and sociality.
Non-lexical vocalizations 