Austin: “ Gestures ” 2002Do listener’s facial expressions influence
speaker’s discourse ?
Claire Maury-Rouan
CNRS, UMR 6057, Université de Provence, (France)
claire.maury-rouan@lpl.univ-aix.fr
<http://www.lpl.univ-aix.fr>
1. Introduction
Although a lot has been written on verbal and on nonverbal behavior taken separately,
as Lee and Beattie (1998) pointed out, “there have been relatively few
attempts to describe the complex inter-relationships between verbal and non-verbal
behavior” (1998: 51). Ch. Goodwin (1981), studying the relationship of
gaze behavior to conversational organization and turn-taking negotiation by
interactants, found that addressee’s gaze towards speaker was a necessary
basis in hearership, and should be brought to the speaker before the speaker’s
gaze arrived at the addressee. If this was not the case, dysfluencies might
occur, often with the effect of bringing the addressee’s attention back
to the speaker. Coherently with Kendon’s 1967 and S.D. Duncan (1977) findings,
Beattie (1983) demonstrated that gaze movements were also related to planning
periods: monitoring interactant’s behavior (looking at addressee) and planning
speech (looking away) were cognitively incompatible activities: looking at addressee
while planning speech resulted in dysfluencies and increasing difficulties.
Rather than questioning the link to cognitive activities or to the turn-taking
process, my study focuses on the relationship of speakers’ and listeners’
nonverbal behavior to the discourse strategies speakers develop, analyzed from
an interactional point of view (Maury-Rouan 1998, Maury-Rouan 2001a, Maury-Rouan
2001b).
As J. Cosnier (2000) puts it: being a “happy speaker” implies being
able to make one’s ideas explicit, understood, and moreover, to be approved,
to share a point of view, to have an action performed, to convince others. Consistent
with the findings of the above mentioned authors, Cosnier explains that much
of this type of information reaches the speaker via the addressee’ s gaze
direction and facial expressions (smiling, frowning, etc.) and suggests that
such information might strongly influence a speaker’s discourse strategies.
In line with Cosnier’s views, my study will focus on two main discourse
strategies: modulation and hypocorrection, and the conditions in which they
appear in a speaker’s discourse. I hypothesize that their presence cannot
solely be accounted for by the needs of discourse content, or by listener’s
audible reactions (mainly: mms and hms ). I would like to check whether nonverbal
events: (1) speaker’s and addressee’s gaze behavior, and (2) synchronization
of addressee’s facial expressions with content of speaker’s discourse
might cause modulation or hypocorrection to appear.
2. Modulation, hypocorrection, vs. hesitation patterns.
Vion (1992) introduced the concept of modulation to describe strategies used
by the speaker to soften his/her own words, avoiding assertive discourse as
a possible threat to the recipient’s face.
E.g.: "this movie is excellent"
Vs: (modulation) "I
kind of liked it, though, in a way"
Performed through various linguistic forms – including modalizations ,
hedges
(as defined by Lakoff (1972) or polyphony, modulation generally speaking operates
by establishing distance between speaker and utterance. Modulation belongs to
the category of reflexive adaptation of one’s own speech but is specifically
recipient-oriented as an interactive strategy.
Another strategy, hypocorrection (Maury-Rouan 1998) has similar interactive
goals as it also works as a softener. Hypocorrection consists in an attempt
to give one’s discourse a clumsy, colloquial, or even broken or dysfluent
style, when introducing clever or innovating statements or ideas. By and large,
hypocorrection allows the speaker, by toning down a potential flattering image
of self, to avoid sounding pretentious or pedantic, thus reducing the risk of
threat to recepient(s) face.
E.g. : The balance between East and West used to be very reassuring; we knew
there was an East block”
V.s. (hypocorrection): The balance between East
and West sort of ah:::: t’was like very ah::::(1.65) reassuring + ya’
know + we knew + well there were ++ there was a We+East block")
Hypocorrection may be carried out by slang, as well as by fuzzy use of connective
particles (quoi, bon), resulting into a type of discourse that portrays oral
style, to a degree that sometimes includes dysfluency patterns, as can be noticed
in the example given above. Discriminating hypocorrection from genuine hesitation
in such contexts can prove to be quite tricky.
3. Methods.
3.1 Multimodal corpus.
Analysis was based on 20 videotaped dyads. Subjects were expected to do their
best to discuss a topic for 10 minutes. They sat facing each other, filmed by
3 cameras simultaneously. Two close-shot films were assembled into one synchronized
split-screen, enabling us to analyze coordination of interactants’ behaviors.
3.2 Analyzing data.
A first transcription from the audio track only was analyzed, looking for clues
of the presence of various discourse strategies on the basis of verbal and vocal
parameters only.
In a second stage, related nonverbal behavior (gaze direction, facial expressions
and head nods mainly) was taken into account, in order to check whether visual
data matched previous verbal-based hypothesis. This divided approach of data
was designed as an attempt to minimize the risk of circularity.
4. Findings.
4. 1. Addressee’s inadequate gaze behavior and facial expression does seem
to induce destabilization of speaker.
The recepient’s uncooperative nonverbal behavior ([-gaze] , skeptical facial
expression..) destabilizes the speaker, resulting into phases of stuttering:
pour + pour + pourquoi (why +why + why). filled or empty pauses, as well as
modulations : quoi (y’know) , tu vois ce que je veux dire(see what I mean).
4. 2. Head nods don’t seem to be sufficiently convincing as means of approval.
Facial expression is more crucial evidence to the speaker as to the certainty
of being approved.
Although clearly interactive, echoing nods are ordinarily beneath the level
of conscious recall (McClave 1998: 367). Similarly, listeners head nods in my
data seem to be induced almost automatically as a response to stressed syllables,
or to support-seeking particles such as quoi (y’know) in speakers discourse:
they are present even when the addressee does not agree at all with the speaker’s
opinion. This appears in the addressee’s behavior, as he regularly nods
at each crucial point, while producing repeated turn-taking efforts in order
to object to the opinion being sustained.So head-nods do not compensate for
lack of verbal support and an unexpressive face, as appears from repeated modulation
efforts in the speaker’s discourse when such a situation occurs.
4. 3. When a speaker is experiencing actual speech planning difficulties, a
certain type of discourse particles can actually operate as floor-holders, which
sheds an unusual light over the functional value of such particles.
In some interactive situations, the speaker operates by another kind of semi-conscious
strategy. While averted gaze apparently reveals genuine planning difficulties,
speakers seem to be able to resort - more or less consciously - to what could
be called discourse lures (Maury-Rouan 2001b).
The addressee is lured by connective particles such as donc, enfin, en fait
literally: therefore, finally, in fact, into expecting a logical development
of some sort (announced by apparently constructive connective particles) and
thus remains patient and tolerant enough not to interrupt the hesitant utterance.
4. 4. Conversely, interactants may display hypocorrection.
Seemingly dysfluent patterns could be identified as cases of hypocorrection,
because the speaker remained [+gaze] while displaying filled pauses, lexical
repairs or stuttering patterns. Hypocorrection might be considered as a “strategy
“operating as a softening act. 5.
Final Comments.
The analysis by and large confirmed initial hypothesis on the coordination of
nonverbal regulation and discourse structure. However, it seems clear that the
influence of gaze patterns and facial expression over the speaker’s strategy
is at its height in the first 1-2 minutes of this type of interaction., when
participants meet for the first time.
Another finding is that verbal features and nonverbal features are not always
what they seem to be. A connective particle for instance may function as floor-holders;
make-believe hesitations and colloquial language may work as affiliative strategies
(softeners) etc.
It remains very difficult though to determine to what extent we are dealing
with actual strategies, the degree of awareness of the behavior we described
being unclear, though nonverbal clues (gestures and gaze behavior mainly) may
prove to be helpful. But then also, maybe speakers are able to communicate without
being clearly aware of every aspect of their actions, and a bit of intrinsic
fuzziness may prove to be one of the conditions of speaker’s happiness.
References:
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Le Français dans tous ses états, Paris, Flammarion 325-340.
Duncan S.D. (1977): Face-to-face Interaction: Research, Methods and Theory.
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Goodwin, C. (1981): Conversational Organization . New York Academic Press.
Kendon, A. (1967): "Some functions of gaze direction in social interaction".
Acta Psychologica, 26(1), 1-47.
Lakoff G. (1972) : “Hedges : A Study of Meaning Criteria and the Logic
of Fuzzy Concepts” Papers for the Eighth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic
Society : 183-228.
Lee, V. & Beattie, G. (1998): " The Rhetorical Organization of Verbal
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Maury-Rouan, C.(2000):"L’hypo-correction: entre sociolinguistique
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