On the pragmatics of multi-modal face-to-face communication: Gesture, speech and gaze in the coordination of mental states and social interaction

Coordination is at the heart of human conversation. In order to interact with one another through talk, we must coordinate at many levels, first and foremost at the level of our mental states, intentions and conversational contributions. In this talk, I will present findings on the pragmatics of multi-model communication from both production and comprehension studies. In terms of production, I will throw light on (1) how co-speech gestures are used in the coordination of meaning to allow interactants to arrive ate a shared understanding of the thins we talk about, as well as on (2) how gesture and gaze are employed in the coordination of speaking turns in spontaneous conversation, with special reference to the psycholinguistic and cognitive challenges that turn-taking poses. In terms of comprehension, I will focus on communicative intentions and the interplay of ostensive and semantic multi-model signals in triadic communication contexts. My talk will bring these different findings together to make the argument for richer reearch paradigms that capture more of the complexities and sociality of face-to-face conversational interactoin. Advancing the field of multi-model communication in this way will allow us to more fully understand the psycholinguistic processes that underlie human language use and language comprehension