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Publication detail

Multimodal conduct and attitude in court: An exploratory study into recurrent gestures in expert testimony

Authors: Szczyrbak Magdalena Adriana

Year: 2021

Type of publication: ostatní - přednáška nebo poster

Page from-to: nestránkováno

Titles:

Language	Name	Abstract	Keywords
eng	Multimodal conduct and attitude in court: An exploratory study into recurrent gestures in expert testimony	Whenever speakers engage in interaction, they “continuously inform one another about their intentions, interests, feelings and ideas by means of visible bodily action” (Kendon, 2004, p. 1). Utterances are thus constructed out of spoken and gestured materials which may be used as complementary or alternative components. Similarly, activities in which physical objects are being used, help to understand a person’s interactional goals and interests. However, despite the relevance of speech, gesture and materiality to the expression of the speaker’s attitudes and intentions, the role of multimodal conduct in courtroom interaction has thus far been neglected (for exceptions, see Franceschi, 2016; Matoesian and Gilbert, 2018). To fill this gap, the current study focuses on the role of non-referential gestures, described as pragmatic (Kendon, 2004) or recurrent (Ladevig, 2014) gestures, in expert testimony with a view to exploring their role in the construction of multimodal stance. Using video material from a high-profile criminal trial, the study examines the form, distribution and function of selected gestures in the discourse of two medical experts and demonstrates their role in the communication of expert knowledge to the court audience. Specifically, the analysis identifies recurrent gestures which are correlated with the witness’s knowledge claims, explains the relation between recurrent gestures and turn construction as well as reveals how selected gestures convey the witness’s attitude towards discourse objects and subjects. The study also links selected gestures with modal, performative and parsing (Kendon, 2004) functions, likening them to modal, illocutionary force and discourse markers in speech. In sum, the analysis demonstrates that legal discourse is more than “just words” and that expert witnesses construct their knowledge claims and attitude multimodally by way of speech and gesture. It argues that close scrutiny of gestural patterns in courtroom discourse	jury trial; expert testimony; multimodal conduct; stance; recurrent gestures