A multimodal approach to grammatical aspect

Abstract

This paper offers a multimodal approach to grammatical aspect, traditionally seen in linguistics as a verbal-morphological category. Using conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, we take as our object of study turn completions done with bodily movements and non-lexical vocalizations, focusing on the aspectual information they construct, and how this information is oriented to as relevant to the trajectory of action underway. We argue that the aspectual information constructed through the practice of completing a turn with bodily movements and non-lexical vocalizations is part of demonstrating the speaker’s experiential knowledge relevant to the epistemic claims being made, in the service of securing some form of affiliative uptake from the recipient regarding those claims. Pursuits designed in this way provide the recipient access to the speaker’s “way of viewing the internal temporal constituency of [the] situation” (Comrie 1976: 3). Furthermore, we show that the aspectual information conveyed (i) by bodily movements, and (ii) co-occurring non-lexical vocalizations, are somewhat distinct from each other. Our study is the first that we are aware of to examine the category of grammatical aspect in turn completions and in this embodied and social-interactional way. Data are in American English.