Analysing Discourse Markers: A Multi-Modal Approach
Transcript of Analysing Discourse Markers: A Multi-Modal Approach
Analysing Discourse Markers:A Multi-Modal Approach
Svenja Adolphs and Dawn Knight
BAAL 200811th – 13th September 2008, Swansea University
Non-verbal, multi-modal behaviour plays an integral part indetermining meaning in language.
Current corpus methodologies in language data analysis(especially spoken language) need to be extended toinclude an integrated exploration of both verbal & non-verbalpatterns of social interaction.
Key components in gesture include head nods and handgestures and initial research indicates relationships betweenthem and key linguistic features such as backchannels anddiscourse markers.
Research foundations
DReSS
NMMC (Nottingham Multi-Modal Corpus) data:
250,000 words 125,000 words of 1-party data, 125,000 words of 2-party data Data in three different modes: textual, audio and video
Corpus tool-bench (DRS- The Digital Replay System):
A reusable corpus tool with the flexibility to be utilised for awide range of qualitative social science enquiry
Allows the analyst to search lexical, prosodic and gesturalfeatures of spoken discourse (and beyond…..)
Introducing the DReSS project
Working research question:
Are there specific gesture sequences that are associatedwith discourse markers that function to manage (e.g. right,so, anyway) the talk, as opposed to more interpersonalones (e.g. in a sense, I guess)?
Key challenges:
Marking and coding the gesture phase accurately,searching and locating the marked gestures andapproaching the analysis of these.
Key linguistic questions
Data
Plotting gesture shape and trajectory
For example:
13 = Left arm moves up and left, rightarm moves up and right
Tracking gestures
A coding scheme for gesture-in-talk
MOVEMENT CLASSIFICATION
Stage 1: Type
Stage 2: Shape / Trajectory /Intensity / Duration
Stage 3: Frequency
Combining movement and linguistic codes for analysis:
LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION
Stage 1: Discursive function
Stage 2: Form
Stage 3: Frequency
The interaction oflanguage and gesture-in-use for the generation of
meaning in discourse
Discourse Markers
Preliminary findings (based on corpus searches)
Discourse markers: Gesture Vs no-gestureGesture No Gesture
Pragmatic category in relation to linguistic form & function
DRS