Recipient response behaviour during Japanese storytelling: a combined quantitative/multimodal approach

• Author / Creator

  Walker, Neill Lindsey

• This study explores the role of speaker and listener gaze in the production of recipient responses, often called backchannels or, in Japanese, aizuchi. Using elicited narrative audio/video data, speaker gaze and recipient response behaviours were first analyzed quantitatively. The results showed that majority of recipient responses are made while the speaker is gazing at the recipient. Next, a qualitative multimodal analysis was performed on a specific type of recipient response that occurred both during and without speaker gaze. The results showed that recipients make good use of the state of the speaker’s gaze to regulate the speaker’s talk and negotiate for a pause, a repair, or a turn at talk. These findings suggest that what are currently known as backchannels are only a small part of a much larger sequential multimodal system that is inseparable from the ongoing talk.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Quantitative
  • Language
  • Storytelling
  • Aizuchi
  • Video
  • Backchannel
  • Japanese
  • Qualitative
  • Multimodal
  • Conversation
  • Linguistics

• Graduation date

  Fall 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3V92G

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.