November 1, 2009

The 55th Meeting of Mind and Activity



Saturday, November 14, 2009

15:30 - 19:30
Honkan (Main building)
Room 1555
Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo

Program

We plan to have one presentation and one data session.

1. Domenic Berducci (Toyama Prefectural University, Toyama)
"Turn taking and sequencing in infant/caregiver interaction: Act on>react>close"

I would like to examine a few fragments of IN/CG interaction that seem to display a three-part sequence: act on>react>close. 'Act on' is a term from the Wittgensteinian literature that appears to be an adequate descriptor for the first turn in this sequence. It is an action by the caregiver on an infant's body, eg lifting, tossing, adjusting, burping, and so on. This 'acting on' brings about (not 'occaision') an infant natural reaction (creature release, grabbing, object gaze, sucking at nipple) or second generation natural reaction (sucking at bottle nipple). These reactions are followed in the sequence by a closing turn done by the caregiver. As we know, closing thirds can take many forms, and they do here as well.

I would like to explore these (putative) sequences with the Mind and Activity Workshop to determine their status (if any) and to increase the accuracy of my descriptions.

2. Data session: Data provided by Cade Bushnell

The data comes from a monthly research group meeting (a CA data session) in which both first and second language speakers of Japanese are co-participating.







If anybody is interested in bringing their own data, analyses, observations, arguments, or whatever, to a next meeting to discuss together, please contact Aug Nishizaka at augnish(a)soc.meijigakuin.ac.jp.