Constructing Meaning from Space, Gesture, and Speech

Abstract

Face-to-face communication in the workplace is often conceived of as consisting mainly of spoken language. Although spoken language is clearly a very important medium for the creation of representations, in complex work settings, it is one of several such media. Gestures and the space inhabited by speakers and listeners are normally thought of as providing context for the interpretation of speech. In this chapter we show how space, gesture, and speech are all combined in the construction of complex multilayered representations in which no single layer is complete or coherent by itself. We examine a brief explanation given by one worker to two others. We show how the meaning of the explanation is carried in the coordination among the spatial organization of specialized artifacts, the positioning of gestures with respect to those artifacts, and the words that are spoken.