“Shaking-Fingers” in Finger Braille Conversation:How Do Deafblind People Display Affective Attitude?

Abstract

In this paper we analyzed the action of “shaking-fingers” produced by deafblind people who use finger braille through a description of the basic characteristics of the action and observation of its use in conversation. Through a description of basic characteristics, we showed that the action of “shaking-fingers”: a) tends to occur together with a long vowel symbol, b) is accompanied by laughter, and c) is followed by a turn change. Based on this, we pointed out that this action expresses the affective attitude of showing that the speaker thinks something they said is funny. Regarding the use of “shaking-fingers”, we observed that there were two types: one that indicates the speaker’s understanding of the previous utterance, and another that indicates the speaker’s high interest in something. We analyzed examples of both types and found that the use of “shaking-fingers” is a practice that shows the speaker’s understanding independently of linguistic form and enables the deepening of conversation based on a shared interest in newly mentioned content.