Synchronized Behavior in Co-tellers as a Practice for Restoring Progressivity in Storytelling

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate a practice for restoring the progressivity in storytelling when a storyteller is faced with trouble in delivering a story. In employing a conversation analytic approach, we analyze an instance of storytelling with three participants, two of whom are able to tell the story. In constellations where two participants are able to perform as co-tellers they sometimes produce synchronized behavior such as unison and gestural matching that rely on enhanced projectability through various resources. We call attention to gestural projectability and to resources that allow projection of the shape or the timing of the gesture that is to be produced. Unison and gestural matching are produced publicly. That is, their production process is visible to listeners when co-tellers produce them thorough fine-grained mutual monitoring of both speech and body movements. This suggests that unison and gestural matching can be utilized in order to resolve trouble concerning the pace of storytelling between co-tellers and that such phenomena play a key role in foreshadowing a return to progressivity in storytelling.