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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Paul SeedhouseORCiD
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Most people believe they think and speak in a particular language and that our world is divided by the 7,000 languages spoken in different countries. However, in this book we show that language is only one of the two complex adaptive systems (of equal importance) which we all use in combination during human spoken interaction. Moreover, the other system —which Levinson (2006) calls ‘the interaction engine’- is the universal, foundational system which we all learn as infants as a pre-requisite before we learn languages. The interaction engine evolved before language and forms the ‘natural ecological niche for language’ (Schegloff 2006). Language is a separate complex adaptive system described elsewhere (e.g., Ellis and Larsen-Freeman 2009b). The interaction engine provides the infrastructure for speakers to mirror their communicative intentions to each other multimodally in talk and to resolve problems. We explain how the interaction engine uses the same basic procedures as other life-related complex systems in the world; these are described in the substantial literature on Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST). Humans beings are complex adaptive systems, so it is important for us to understand how such systems work. We specify how exactly the interaction engine functions and how its component mechanisms combine and adapt to enable speakers to perform their social actions and to understand each other. For this, we use the substantial literature on Conversation Analysis (CA), and present a combined ‘CA-CDST’ approach to spoken interaction, providing examples of how to analyse spoken interaction on both the micro and macro levels simultaneously. Focusing on L2 users of English engaged in interaction in a ‘superdiverse’ context, we zoom in on how the speakers utilise and adapt word search sequences over time in this informal English as a lingua franca (ELF) setting of an international dormitory. We analyse the patterns and changes of the users as individuals and as a cohort in terms of their use of word search sequences as a system. We find that L2 speakers adapt their language use and epistemic stance both moment-to-moment and across a longer time span based on feedback. We also demonstrate the dual nature of word search sequences as speakers seamlessly and mutually move in and out of learning and socialising. Our data reveal a discrepancy; the speakers make expert, inventive use of the universal interaction engine to convey sophisticated levels of meaning, even though they are not expert level speakers of the L2 and do not share the same linguistic or cultural background. We argue that this is because they are employing two separate complex adaptive systems: the interaction engine and language. We also introduce the practices of treating research methodologies themselves as complex adaptive systems and of using self-similarity as a methodological principle. These practices reveal how CA methodology adapts itself to mirror the adaptations of the complex system of human spoken interaction, as well as explaining the nature of the relationship between CA and CDST. In contrast to the diverse languages which have tended to separate us as a human race, the interaction engine is what brings us all together in a communal human experience and is what enables us to communicate with others whenever language is a problem. We explain why the interaction engine is the most revealing of all life-related complex systems on planet Earth.
Author(s): Siegel A, Seedhouse P
Publication type: Authored Book
Publication status: Published
Series Title: Studies in Social Interaction
Year: 2024
Number of Pages: 248
Print publication date: 31/05/2024
Online publication date: 28/06/2024
Acceptance date: 01/05/2024
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Place Published: Edinburgh
URL: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-human-spoken-interaction-as-a-complex-adaptive-system.html
Notes:
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 9781399522687
