The use of pictures for interactional purposes and the grammar of social interaction

Authors

  • Gitte Rasmussen University of Southern Denmark

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.30282

Keywords:

interaction, pictures, conversation analysis, augmentative and alternative communication

Abstract

This conversation analytic study investigates the introduction of pictures in sequence initial position in Atypical Interaction across institutional and private settings. The pictures share two main features; they are paper-based and they can be manipulated by hand. Danish clients (from different populations) and their relatives, or speech and language pathologists, combine them in initial position systematically with talk, amongst other resources, in three different ways. The paper studies how their use becomes interwoven with talk, and the grammar of language, in order to be understandable as resources for interaction. Co-participants orient towards this, which, as is suggested, needs to be put in the foreground in order to nuance the potential of artefacts not only for atypical interaction, but possibly in typical interaction too. Strands of research in both areas have focused on (the potential of) artifacts as resources for communication and interaction.

Author Biography

  • Gitte Rasmussen, University of Southern Denmark

    Gitte Rasmussen received her PhD in German 1997 at Odense University. The doctorate was awarded on the basis of a thesis on ‘Culture in Intercultural Interlingual Interaction’. From 1999–2014 she held a position as associate professor of Interaction at the Department of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark (SDU). Her current position is Professor with special responsibilities (wsr) in the area of Social Practices and Cognition at the Department of Language and Communication, SDU. She is also member of the SDU research unit Professional Interaction and Practice. Her research interests focus on ethnomethodological and conversation analytic studies of social interaction. Since 2006 her work centres particularly on interactions in institutional settings involving people who are diagnosed with communication disorders and/or cognitive impairments. The work consists of descriptions and analyses of the features of how (non)impaired participants construct and organize actions in discursive practices for specific institutional purposes, e.g. language- and communication-teaching. In general her research contributes to a discussion of the challenges and possibilities that (non)impaired co-participants face when conducting their interactional affairs. Recent publications include papers in Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, Journal of Pragmatics, and Pragmatics and Society.

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Published

2017-02-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Rasmussen, G. (2017). The use of pictures for interactional purposes and the grammar of social interaction. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 8(1), 121-145. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.30282