Assessing Mutable Objects: A Multimodal Analysis

Abstract

The article examines assessments of objects with which participants are currently engaged. Through the analysis of evaluative activities around the production of a clothing item in a fashion atelier, we illustrate the embodied components of both assessments and their responses, and argue that embodied actions (such as embedded phases of appraisal through observation and manipulation) are central to the understanding of both the meaning and the temporal unfolding of the assessment sequence. Furthermore, we show that negative assessments of mutable objects can function as proposals, as revealed by responses doing acceptance or refusal. Finally, we consider the matter from the point of view of the person receiving the assessment. We argue that the speaker's choice of particular forms of verbal assessment, together with their use of gestures to express negative components of the evaluation, can be especially useful resources for recipients who are directly responsible for the object under evaluation.

Notes

An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Conference on Conversation Analysis, Helsinki, May, 2006. We would like to thank Lorenza Mondada, Anna Lindström, and two reviewers for their insightful comments. We would also like to thank Charles Antaki for his precious comments on the last version of the article. The study is one of several investigations in the project Language and Social Action: A Comparative Study of Affiliation and Disaffiliation across National Communities and Institutional Contexts (financed by the Italian Council for Research, CNR 2005-2007).

¹To use the expression used by one of our reviewers, assessments are in such contexts “fungible” with proposals and instructions.

²Ethnographic fieldnotes and video recordings were realized by Mara Fragnelli. All participants gave their consent to the recordings and the publications of images from the tapes. All names have been altered.

³Try-on sessions, occasionally with the help of professional models, may also occur in the days preceding fairs, to select the clothing items that will go in the presentation of the new season's lines. It appears that having the clothes worn “live” is an important requirement for the evaluation of these products.

⁴Such a situation is common in the context of shared meals, where the evaluation can imply both the appreciation of the food provider and the requesting or rejecting of food items (Mondada, 2009; Wiggins & Potter, 2003).