Multimodal Demonstrations of Understanding of Visible, Imagined, and Tactile Objects in Guided Tours

Abstract

ABSTRACT How do people demonstrate that they have fully appreciated the qualities of an object they have been invited to inspect? If the features are visible, verbal assessment is comparatively straightforward, but appreciating tactile or imagined qualities requires more discursive work. To explore the ways in which people show their understanding of these underresearched modalities of objects, we analyze interactions between guides and visitors in guided tours. Such tours are a perspicuous setting, as they are environments where artifacts can be viewed, conceptualized, and sometimes touched and handled. We identify the multimodal resources that guides and visitors use. Data are in Japanese with English translation.