Problems With The Deixis Feature 'Tracing'

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 176):

The feature [tracing] is realised through a dynamic vector which identifies a part or quality (e.g. shape) of an entity through movement. In (14), a biochemistry lecturer is describing the structure of a water molecule. He traces with his index finger a 90° angle on a projected image of the atoms which compose a water molecule. The tracing motion is shown in arrows in the three sequential images as his index finger moves from right to left and then down. This movement is retraced multiple times in sync with the duration of underlined wordings. The retracing is interrupted in sync with the verbal reset (I’m sorry).

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the feature 'tracing' is not deictic, because it does not make distinctions by reference to the here-&-now of the speaker/gesturer. Moreover, it is not a feature of the content plane, since like its realisation statement 'insert motion', it characterises the expression that realises content.

[2] To be clear, this gesturing makes a sequence of references that are exophoric to paralanguage. The efficacy of this type of body language diminishes rapidly with distance between the gesture and the referent.

Misconstruing Endophoric Reference As Ideation

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 175-6):

It is important to note here the similarity between the expressions of PARALINGUISTIC DEIXIS in (12) and some depictions of ideational entities realising PARALINGUISTIC IDEATION (see Chapter 4; Hood and Hao, 2021). The difference is illustrated in the two images in (13).

In image 1 the teacher delineates an [actual] entity – a written text. The expression syncs with the verbal specific determiner this in We need some sentences that link this. 

In image 2 the teacher sculpts a paralinguistic entity with her left hand in the gestural space. This expression syncs with the figure How does that sentence link back to the first one?. The semiotic entity realised in sentence in image 2 is depicted (Chapter 4) rather than pointed to.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the more likely tone for the WH- interrogative clause is tone 1. Tone 2 here would realise 'tentative' KEY, and there is nothing to suggest that this question from the teacher to her class is tentative.

[2] To be clear, in the first image, the referent of the gesture exophoric to paralanguage is the same referent as that of the exophoric demonstrative this in the spoken language.

[3] To be clear, here the authors misinterpret a gesture that realises a reference endophoric to paralanguage as a gesture that realises ideational meaning: an element ('entity') of a figure. Clearly, the gesture does not construe the meaning 'sentence'. Rather, here the teacher repeats the same gesture she previously used to point to a specific sentence in the written text. In doing so, her gesture makes anaphoric reference to her previous gesture to identify that sentence.

Interestingly, the speaker uses the word that to make exophoric reference to a referent outside language, while her gesture makes endophoric reference to a referent inside paralanguage, though the referent is the same in each case.

Why A Delineating Demarcation Gesture Is Neither Deictic Nor Delineating [2]

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 175, 172):

Elsewhere in the data we find a [delineating] vector configuring boundaries with a bent finger and thumb – as in example (12). In both images the [delineating] DEIXIS identifies segments of a projected written text. (See also example (8).)

Blogger Comments:

[1] As before, this gesture does not serve a deictic function because it does not realise a distinction in relation to the here-&-now of the speaker/gesturer. And, in terms of IDENTIFICATION, the meaning recoverable from the exophoric reference realised by each gesture is simply the meaning realised by the segment of writing in the environment of body language, not the physical boundaries of its realisation.

[2] To be clear, neither this type of gesture nor its meaning is illustrated in (8):

Why A Delineating Demarcation Gesture Is Neither Deictic Nor Delineating [1]

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 174-5):

The feature [delineating] is realised through an embodied vector that configures one or more borders – as in example (11). The image shows a number of lists of thematic categories on the whiteboard. In sync with the underlining in language, the teacher’s left hand is angled at the wrist with fingers straightened to configure PARALINGUISTIC DEIXIS as [delineating]. She is identifying the border between the category heading work and the related list of words underneath.

Blogger Comments:

[1] As before, this gesture does not serve a deictic function because it does not realise a distinction in relation to the here-&-now of the speaker/gesturer.

[2] To be clear, the meaning recoverable from the exophoric reference realised by this gesture is the vertical list of words 'related to the Theme of work'. The actual division between the title and the list of words is irrelevant to the meaning made in the speaker's text, so drawing attention to it with a gesture would serve no purpose.

Misrepresenting The Relative Size Of Referents As Deixis

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 174):

The three images in (10) show variations in SCOPE of paralinguistic deixis through vectors expressed with hand or fingers. SCOPE varies from relatively [broad] via the palm of the hand in image 1, to relatively [narrow] via an index finger in image 2, to maximally [narrow] via a little finger in image 3.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, these gestures make exophoric reference to metaphenomena in the environment of the paralanguage through physical contact. The identity that recoverable from the different finger gestures in the second and third images is a written word [narrow], whereas the identity that recoverable from the splayed hand gesture is a written paragraph [broad]. The efficacy of the latter gesture diminishes rapidly with distance between the gesture and the referent. Again, 'broad' and 'narrow' are features that distinguish the size of referents. They are not deictic in function because they do not make distinctions with regard to the here-&-now of the speaker/gesturer.

Confusing Reference With Engagement

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 173-4):

In (9), from our cultural studies lecture, the lecturer is eliciting responses from students in relation to a projected orientalist image.

In the first image in (9), the lecturer verbally refers non-specifically to any student as a potential respondent (anyone). In paralanguage synchronous with underlined spoken language she extends both forearms with supine hands in front of her body – angling them outwards at roughly 45°. The deictic gestures select for relatively [broad] in SCOPE – the two diverging vectors effectively identify the whole class. 

In the second image, synchronous with the lexical construal of a location in up the back, the lecturer points with an index finger, narrowing the SCOPE of identification to a specific student.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, anyone has no reference function because it does not signal that a specific identity is recoverable elsewhere. Non-specific determiners like any do not function as reference items (Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 365).

[2] To be clear, in the first image, these are not pointing gestures, which is consistent with the absence of reference in the language it accompanies. Instead, on the authors' own model, the supine hands realise the engagement feature 'expansion', acknowledging other voices, which is consistent with the instantiation of the engagement feature 'expansion' in the language it accompanies.

[3] To be clear, if the gesture is interpreted as pointing to the whole class, then the feature 'broad' describes the referent, the class.

[4] To be clear, in the second image, the gesture simply makes exophoric reference to the environment of the paralanguage: to a student remote from the speaker.

Problems With The 'Deictic' Systems Of Range: Scope And Demarcation

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 173, 169):

To the partial system network of PARALINGUISTIC DEIXIS presented in Figure 6.2 we now add a simultaneous system of RANGE in Figure 6.3. …

RANGE itself involves choices in two simultaneous systems, SCOPE and DEMARCATION. SCOPE concerns the relative mass (volume or quantity) of phenomena identified in an expression of PARALINGUISTIC DEIXIS. The slanted square bracket indicates a graded (rather than an either/or) system – a pointing gesture can be relatively [narrow] or [broad] in SCOPE.

The selection of SCOPE as relatively [narrow] or [broad] can support the identification of the quantity or volume of entities encompassed in a deictic gesture – for example, as a single entity among others or as an entire group of entities.

Blogger Comments:

As previously explained for Figure 6.2, the upper network is not a system of DEIXIS, but a classification of referents in the environment of body language. Some of the referents are distinguished in terms of deixis (self vs other, 'home' vs 'away'), but most are not (actual vs virtual, semiosis vs location, retrospective vs prospective). Moreover, the network presents referents as realised by the gestures that point to them (cf. referent 'dog' realised by reference item 'this'), and in four cases, referents are realised by the insertion (+) of a pointing gesture into some unacknowledged structure. And in one case, the feature 'virtual', the referent is realised by the structural insertion of a gesture that does not point to it (+ unresolved vector).

Of the extensions to Figure 6.2 in Figure 6.3, the system of SCOPE is also not a system of DEIXIS, but a classification of referents — their scope — in the environment of body language (see also the following post). On the other hand, the system of DEMARCATION is not a system of DEIXIS, because deixis is concerned with distinctions in relation to the speaker, whereas demarcation is not. And the feature 'tracing' is said to be realised by the insertion (+) of motion into some unacknowledged structure.

Confusing Endophoric Reference With Information Focus

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 172):

Opposing features of [home] and [away] are illustrated in the two images in (8).

In the first image, synchronous with today, the lecturer’s pinched left thumb and index finger configures a vector pointing down in front of the lecturer’s body, in an expression of [home]. 

In the second image, synchronous with future, the right hand and forearm extend from the body pointing to a location to the right, expressing [away]. 

The second image additionally shows the left index finger pointing outwards from the body and slightly to the speaker’s left. The completion of this point synchronises with the completion of that to the right. The simultaneity of the two points delineates a space between present and future – a critical issue with respect to questions of fact or opinion.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the timing of the gesture is linguistic and textual, because, like the tonic, it realises the focus of New information, in this case: today and future.

[2] To be clear, this is another example of using body language to make endophoric reference.  In this instance, the left-right dimension represents the past-future dimension of interpersonal time (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 332), and the pointing gesture signals that the meanings 'present' and 'future' are recoverable from those construals by body language. Again, the vector is "resolved" and so the "deixis" is not virtual.

[3] To be clear, the timing of gestures does not have a referential function, because the timing does not point to a referent that can recover the identity of the timing. The timing may have demarcative function ('completion'), but demarcation is not reference.

Moreover, 'same time' does not delineate the time interval between 'present' and 'future', if only because 'same time' can be located in the present, in the future, and at every location in between.

Reference Endophoric To Body Language [2]

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 171-2, 166):

The selection [virtual:location] is also realised paralinguistically through an unresolved vector. The more delicate choice [home] is realised by identifying a space occupied by the speaker; and the opposing choice [away] is realised by pointing to a space other than the space occupied by the speaker (Figure 6.2). 

Paralinguistic expressions of [home] and [away] can converge with the identification of both time and space in verbal discourse. The feature [home] can accordingly converge with both ‘here’ and ‘now’. As noted by Calbris (2011: 128), past time may be pointed to as a location behind a speaker. Where the past is expressed in language in relation to the future, synchronous paralinguistic deixis typically points to a space to the left of the speaker then to the right.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, to claim that a pointing gesture that identifies a location in space is an "unresolved" vector is self-contradiction, since the vector is "resolved" by the location that it points to. So, in such instances, the deixis is not virtual.

[2] As previously explained, Figure 6.2 is not a system of DEIXIS, but a classification of referents in the environment of body language. Some of the referents are distinguished in terms of deixis (self vs other, 'home' vs 'away'), but most are not (actual vs virtual, semiosis vs location, retrospective vs prospective). Moreover, the network presents referents as realised by the gestures that point to them (cf. referent 'dog' realised by reference item 'this'), and in four cases, referents are realised by the insertion (+) of a pointing gesture into some unacknowledged structure. And in one case, the feature 'virtual', the referent is realised by the structural insertion of a gesture that does not point to it (+ unresolved vector).

[3] To be clear, this is another example of using body language to make endophoric reference. In the previous example, material elements of outer experience (mouth, temple) ideationally construe semiotic elements of inner experience (word, encode), and the pointing gesture signals that those meanings are recoverable from those construals by body language. In this example, the left-right dimension of interpersonal space ideationally construes the past-future dimension of interpersonal time (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 144, 332), and the pointing gesture signals that those meanings are recoverable from those construals by body language. Again, the vector is "resolved" and so the "deixis" is not virtual.

Resolving An "Unresolved" Vector

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 170-1):

The selection [virtual:semiosis:prospective] is realised through a release vector (cf. Arnheim, 1982) – that is, an unresolved vector in which an arm is directed up and away to an ‘unoccupied’ space (typically to the speaker’s left). In example (7) an academic writing teacher is guiding students to jointly edit a draft of a text on the topic of changing work practices.

 

In the first image of (7) the teacher’s point is to an [actual: other], a space between wordings on the projected text, in sync with a pause in speech. In the second image, she again points to an [actual:other], this time a sequence of words that precede the previously identified space. This syncs with they could work at home and have flexible time. 

In the third, she proposes wording that could improve the draft – However, yeah, there are a number of disadvantages or serious disadvantages. In sync with the proposed wording she extends her left arm and hand, pointing up and away to her left instantiating a release vector that realises [virtual:semiosis:prospective].

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, here the teacher is pointing to the portion of text to be edited, so the vector is not "unresolved", and so, in the authors' terms, the deixis is actual, not virtual.

Confusing Demarcation With Deixis

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 168-70):

Paralinguistically, a [virtual:semiosis] entity may be identified either retrospectively or prospectively through an unresolved embodied vector. In a number of instances in the data the selection [virtual:semiosis:retrospective] is realised through a gestural flick – a small, fleeting vertically directed vector expressed with an index finger or hand (body parts that facilitate speed of movement). The flick gesture synchronises with a silent beat (^) which marks a juncture (e.g. a phase or stage boundary) in the flow of meaning in a text. The deictic gesture identifies a preceding segment of text (a semiotic entity), one that bears a logical connection to the coming phase or stage of discourse. The subsequent text is frequently initiated with an internal connector such as so.

Example (5) shows one such instance from the data. … Following presentation of a phase of argument from the airline’s legal counsel, the plaintiff’s argument is introduced in (5). As the phonological transcription reveals, the vertical flick syncs with a silent beat (^) preceding the commencement of the last tone group, which begins with the internal connector so.

In (6) the first image captures the conclusion of Edmonds’s argument everything’s mucked up. Image 2 shows the vertical flick (circled), realised in sync with the culminative silent beat (^). It retrospectively identifies the preceding semiotic entity – in this case a stage of the storytelling in which both parties (British Airways and Edmonds) put their arguments to the court. The conclusion of that stage converges with the lecturer closing his eyes and dropping his head. In image 3 the lecturer reorients his body to his left in sync with the internal connector so as he commences a new stage of the lecture in which he discusses the logic of the preceding arguments.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the timing of the gesture with a pause between a quote and a non-quote might be taken as evidence that the function of the gesture is demarcation (punctuating text) rather than deixis (pointing with respect to the speaker).

[2] To be clear, the authors provide no evidence in support of this claim. It would seem that the authors have given priority to the view 'from below' rather than the view 'from above': that is, since the gesture resembles pointing, it must have a deictic function, therefore it must refer back to the previous text.

Problems With Virtual Paralinguistic Deixis

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 168):

In PARALINGUISTIC DEIXIS the selection of [virtual] is realised through an unresolved vector, that is, one that does not direct a viewer’s gaze to a materially present phenomenon (Figure 6.3). Here a primary distinction in the recoverability of phenomena is made between [virtual:semiosis] and [virtual:location].

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, a gesture that does not direct a viewer's gaze is not deictic, since nothing is related to the here-&-now of the gesturer, and not reference, since it does not signal where an identity is recoverable. It will be seen that of the authors' two examples, the gesture in the first is not deictic, and the gesture in the second is not "unresolved".

[2] To be clear, the features 'semiosis' and 'location' distinguish referents. They do not distinguish the means of referring to them.

Reference Endophoric To Body Language [1]

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 168):

In example (4), a biochemistry lecturer instructs students to take note of and remember a key technical term, saying and that’s a word you should encode. Synchronous with word he points to his mouth (locating the source of words), and synchronous with encode he points to his head (as the location of memory).

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, these are instances of using body language to make endophoric reference. Here material elements of outer experience (mouth, temple) ideationally construe semiotic elements of inner experience (word, encode), and the pointing gesture signals that those meanings are recoverable from those construals by body language.

Exophoric Reference To The Previous Speaker

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 167-8):

Note that when a speaker points to an [actual] entity in the shared material space, that entity may in fact relate indirectly to one referenced in language. Examples are presented in (3) and (4). 

In (3) an academic writing teacher has elicited suggestions from students on approaches to self-editing their work. Following a discussion of a contribution from a particular student the teacher remarks – so using that approach is I think a great idea. The verbal text endophorically tracks to the semiotic entity approach through the specific determiner that while the synchronous paralanguage points to a thing entity – a student, the student who was the source of the suggested approach.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, the demonstrative reference item that is endophoric to language, indicating that an identity is recoverable from inside preceding text, whereas the pointing gesture is exophoric to body language, indicating that an identity is recoverable from the environment of the gesturing.

Problems With The Authors' Analysis Of 'Actual' Paralinguistic Deixis

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 166, 167): 

Example (2) illustrates contrasting instances accompanying the verbal text you’re wearing a stripy shirt – explain this image to me. In each of the three frames a resolved vector is expressed with a hand or index finger point. …  In the first two frames the point is directed outwards selecting [other], first to a student and then to a projected image. In the third it is directed back to the lecturer, selecting [self].

Each of the entities identified through deictic paralanguage in (2) is also tracked exophorically in the spoken text – to a student (you), to a thing (this image) and to the lecturer herself (me). However, as revealed in the first two images in (2), the resolution of the paralinguistic vector does not sync sonovergently with the verbal expressions of identification (i.e. you and this) but rather with the underlined lexis realising relevant entities – specifically the stripy quality of a student’s clothing and the thing entity image. 

In the third image the PARALINGUISTIC DEIXIS is synchronous with the presuming pronoun me which identifies the entity (lecturer). In this instance me is not salient as might be expected. 

This is accounted for in that the synchronous deictic gesture in image 3 is part of a gestural flow that begins on ‘explain’ and culminates with the completion of the tone group – in this case a tail that follows the tonic. The gestural movement maps the flow of information from ‘about what’ to ‘to whom’.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the selection of the features 'other' and 'self' is instantiation. The relation between a pointing gesture and these features is realisation.

[2] To be clear, these three pointing gestures are exophoric to the environment of paralanguage. The features 'other' and 'self', on the other hand, distinguish the referents in the environment of paralanguage (in terms of deixis), not the paralinguistic means of referring to them.

[3] To be clear, this confuses two distinct textual functions of body language: reference and salience. The function of the pointing gesture is reference, and this is a feature of epilinguistic body language, as demonstrated by the fact that members of other species, such as rainbow lorikeets, do not respond to them as meaningful. The function of the timing of the beat of a gesture with speech is salience, and it is a feature of linguistic body language because it serves the same function as the beats of speech rhythm.

The direction of the pointing gestures identifies the referents (you, image), whereas the timing of the beat of the gestures highlights elements as salient (stripy, image), both of which, despite the authors' phonological analysis, are likely to be tonic, with each realising a focus of New information.

[4] To be clear, if the pointing gesture is timed to beat with me, it highlights me as salient. This suggests that the phonological analysis mistakes a salient syllable for a non-salient one. A more congruent rhythm would be:

// 1 ‸ex/plain this / image to / me // 

[5] To be clear, this gallant attempt does not account for the supposed lack of salience, since a lack of salience has to be explained in terms the function of salience — to highlight a potential focus of information — which the authors' account does not do.