SEWING: What One Does, and What The Other Sees, Re-Does, and Says
Two friends, Abe and Sue, are hanging out during a break at an English language school in the Ukraine. Abe is from Khazakstan and Sue is from Canada, and she speaks English but does not speak Russian. They have been discussing a crafts class at Abe's school, and Abe has informed Sue that the boys build ships in the class. Sue has just asked if "the girls do that, too", and this segment begins with Abe's response to her question. If we consider their vocalized utterances, the transcript might appear this way.
(Click the PLAY button to hear audio of SEWING 1)
Abe: no:. thuh uh 'hh only boys. and the girls
a:re (0.2) uh ah=
Sue: =coo- SEWing
(0.1)
Abe: Sewing.
(0.4)
Sue: that's GOO:d
Speaking generally, we hear Abe's first response to Sue's question ("no:. thuh *uh 'hh only boys"). Then Abe extends his turn and begins offering an account of what "the girls" do. We also hear Abe's (0.2) intra-turn silence along with other indications that he is engaged in a word search (see below). Then we hear the smoothly latched change of speaker as Sue collaboratively offers candidate items ("coo- SEWing") for Abe's word search, followed by a (0.1) gap between speakers. Then Abe speaks a turn (a repetition of "SEWing"), and that is followed by another (0.4) gap between speakers. The segment shown here ends with Sue's final assessment utterance ("that's GOO:d"). This transcription and brief analysis are based on the vocalized construction units with which the participants have constituted their turns and have co-organized their interaction.
However, when we examine this segment more closely and take into account the participants' embodied action turns -- that is, complete with the nonvocalized components of their turns -- a second transcription reveals a more complex interactional landscape. During Abe's word search, how is the candidate item "SEWing" occasioned? Is Sue merely offering a guess? A closer look reveals that Abe's physical movements constitute a pivotal part of their collaborative word search activity.