关键词: 会话分析; 民俗方法学; 序列组织; 多模态交际

Abstract: Conversation analysts treat conversation as social action; this sociological orientation of CA has an implication that it does not exclude non-verbal actions from CA’s remit since its foundation. This article discusses the theoretical and methodological succession from ethnomethodology, through CA to CA-based multimodal interaction research and their interrelationships, focusing on strengths and issues in applying sequential analysis to multimodal interaction research. On the positive side, as a fundamental procedure and method in CA, sequential analysis provides a way of identifying the participants’ treatment and understanding of each other’s actions, a proof procedure intrinsic to the data. It thus enables in-depth, fine-grained investigations into the miscroscopic interactional processes between co-present participants on a moment-by-moment basis. Besides, this article reviews the ways CA-based multimodal interaction analysts deal with their data, using Christian Heath’s transcription scheme as a typical example. Following CA’s strict and clearly-articulated transciption tradition, CA-based multimodal transcription practice inherits every bit of these merits. One problem associated with sequential analysis in multimodal interaction research, especially during data transcription, is that it sometimes poses a challenge to analysts in terms of how to identify clear-cut actions within multimodal sequences, due to the complexities arising from simultaneity in multimodal interactions. Some solutions such as Charles Goodwin’s conceptualization on embodied participation framework or suggestions such as Sigrid Norris’ notions of modal density, etc., have been mentioned as a way out or possible solutions for further research.

Keywords: conversation analysis; ethnomethodology; sequence organization; multimodal interaction