Pointing at a Previous Speaker: Pointing Gestures as a Resource to Make a Direct Link with a Previous Utterance

Abstract

While previous studies on pointing gestures have mostly focused on referential functions, little attention has been paid to pointing gestures not mainly employed to refer to an object, person, or direction. Drawing on a micro-analytic approach to interaction, this paper aims to reveal some interactional tasks of pointing gestures. Specifically, it focuses on pointing directed at an adjacent prior speaker produced at the following placement in a turn and sequence in the following two cases: (1) at the beginning of an agreement turn with a previous speaker, and (2) at the pre-beginning of spontaneous storytelling. Analysis of naturally occurring conversational data demonstrates that in both cases, a pointing gesture directed to a previous speaker can refer to (a part of) his/her utterance, thereby making visible that the target of the agreement or the trigger of the upcoming story is in the previous utterance. It is thus revealed that a pointing gesture, through precise coordination with other verbal and nonverbal behaviors, can be employed as a resource to make a semantic and sequential tie between what precedes it and what follows it to accomplish an ongoing and upcoming action and activity.