Multimodal behaviour and interlocutor identification in political debates

Abstract

The paper deals with the identification of interlocutors via speech and gestures in annotated televised political debates. The analysis of an American and a British debate shows that two of the politicians succeeded better than their political adversaries in identifying their various interlocutors. Since the same two politicians were also judged to be the winners of the debates in several opinion polls, our data can be said to confirm earlier claims that the correct identification of the interlocutor is important for succeeding in communication, particularly in televised political debates, during which politicians address several interlocutors in the physical room where the debates take place as well as outside of it. © Springer-Verlag 2013.