Interaction, multiple semioses and embodiment: An interlocution with Charles Goodwin

Abstract

This paper discusses issues raised by Charles Goodwin’s research, as proposed by the organization of the II International Conference Language and Interaction. Following a brief contextualization of Goodwin’s research, specific aspects of the paper he presented at the conference are addressed, such as his criticism to logocentrism and to Bakhtin’s and Gofman’s interactional models, his vision of embodiment as a social phenomenon, his vision of an aphasic person as a competent interactant, and his view of professional learning as a collaborative embodied achievement. Some points of discussion between Goodwin’s research approach (Conversation Analysis and Ethnometodology) and the author’s approach (Interactional Sociolinguistics and Narrative Analysis) are identified. Among others, the following questions are addressed: the nature of the proposed multissemiotic system, the possibility of dialogue between different social visions of embodiment and emotion, and the integration of history, power and morality in the micro-modality analysis.

Key words: minteraction, multimodality, embodiment, collaborative interaction, emotion.