Multimodal constructions revisited. Testing the strength of association between spoken and non-spoken features of Tell me about it

The present paper addresses the notion of multimodal constructions. It argues that Tell me about it is a multimodal construction that consists of a fixed spoken and a variable, but largely obligatory multimodality slot on the formal side of the construction. To substantiate this claim, the paper rep...

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Main Author: Lehmann Claudia
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2024-08-01
Series:Cognitive Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0095
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author Lehmann Claudia
author_facet Lehmann Claudia
author_sort Lehmann Claudia
collection DOAJ
description The present paper addresses the notion of multimodal constructions. It argues that Tell me about it is a multimodal construction that consists of a fixed spoken and a variable, but largely obligatory multimodality slot on the formal side of the construction. To substantiate this claim, the paper reports on an experiment that shows that, first, hearers experience difficulties in interpreting Tell me about it when it is neither sequentially nor multimodally marked as either requesting or stance-related and, second, hearers considerably rely on multimodal features when a sequential context is missing. In addition, the experiment also shows that the more features are used, the better hearers get at guessing the meaning of Tell me about it. These results suggest that, independent of the question of whether the multimodal features associated with requesting or stance-related Tell me about it are non-spoken, unimodal constructions themselves (like a raised eyebrows construction), a schematic multimodality slot might be part of the constructions.
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spelling doaj-art-0ea108b002db4dd7b6295ba70d30b9d32025-08-25T06:10:17ZengDe GruyterCognitive Linguistics0936-59071613-36412024-08-0135340743710.1515/cog-2023-0095Multimodal constructions revisited. Testing the strength of association between spoken and non-spoken features of Tell me about itLehmann Claudia0University of Potsdam, Potsdam, GermanyThe present paper addresses the notion of multimodal constructions. It argues that Tell me about it is a multimodal construction that consists of a fixed spoken and a variable, but largely obligatory multimodality slot on the formal side of the construction. To substantiate this claim, the paper reports on an experiment that shows that, first, hearers experience difficulties in interpreting Tell me about it when it is neither sequentially nor multimodally marked as either requesting or stance-related and, second, hearers considerably rely on multimodal features when a sequential context is missing. In addition, the experiment also shows that the more features are used, the better hearers get at guessing the meaning of Tell me about it. These results suggest that, independent of the question of whether the multimodal features associated with requesting or stance-related Tell me about it are non-spoken, unimodal constructions themselves (like a raised eyebrows construction), a schematic multimodality slot might be part of the constructions.https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0095construction grammarmultimodal constructionsprosodyvisualsexperiment
spellingShingle Lehmann Claudia
Multimodal constructions revisited. Testing the strength of association between spoken and non-spoken features of Tell me about it
Cognitive Linguistics
construction grammar
multimodal constructions
prosody
visuals
experiment
title Multimodal constructions revisited. Testing the strength of association between spoken and non-spoken features of Tell me about it
title_full Multimodal constructions revisited. Testing the strength of association between spoken and non-spoken features of Tell me about it
title_fullStr Multimodal constructions revisited. Testing the strength of association between spoken and non-spoken features of Tell me about it
title_full_unstemmed Multimodal constructions revisited. Testing the strength of association between spoken and non-spoken features of Tell me about it
title_short Multimodal constructions revisited. Testing the strength of association between spoken and non-spoken features of Tell me about it
title_sort multimodal constructions revisited testing the strength of association between spoken and non spoken features of tell me about it
topic construction grammar
multimodal constructions
prosody
visuals
experiment
url https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0095
work_keys_str_mv AT lehmannclaudia multimodalconstructionsrevisitedtestingthestrengthofassociationbetweenspokenandnonspokenfeaturesoftellmeaboutit