Disjunctively Positioned Problem-Noticings in Managing Multiactivity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines how participants use noticings to attend to observable problems within situations of multiactivity. The noticings are emergent constructions that start with one participant’s initial, embodied orientation to some concrete feature or event in the immediate environment. The observed trouble is then explicated for others in a subsequent, multimodally constructed turn that temporarily suspends the progression of the current main activity. The linguistic formulation and timing of the noticings with respect to the currently ongoing action sequence show that, even though disjunctively inserted, they are not designed to be heard as interruptions. Rather, they are oriented to as legitimate actions that serve to manage the overall progressivity of participants’ multiple involvements in the examined situations. Data are in English and in Finnish with English translation.