Annotation and preliminary analysis of utterance decontextualization in a multiactivity

Abstract

How are conversations decontextualized apart from the here-and-now situation in a daily joint activity? More specifically, how are those (de/)contextualized utterances associated with movements in the activity? Applying Cloran's [1] Rhetoric Units, we identified the degrees of decontextualization for utterances, regarding their time and space distances from the ongoing situation. For the annotation of hand and body movements, we employed Kendon's [2] gesture phases. The association of speech and movements were examined using the degrees of decontextualization and movement phases. The results from the preliminary analysis suggested that when participants were pausing their movements they tend to utter in the high degrees of decontextualization than when they were moving.