Frames und Diagramme im Dialog

Indexikalische und ikonische Zeichenmodi im verbal-gestischen Ko-Konstruieren von Reiserouten

Abstract

This paper aims to show how semantic frames (Fillmore 1982) and diagrams (Peirce 1960) interact in the verbo-gestural co-construction of travelroutes in multimo­dal German dialogue data. Taking a cognitive-semiotic perspective (Mittelberg), we demonstrate how indexical and iconic signs jointly engender semiotic structure and meaning, in both an intramodal and intermodal (cross-modal) fashion. First, we focus on how linguistic and gestural means activitate frames through instantiating frame ele­ments, distinguishing between material or body-based frame elements and those that are less grounded in direct experience and pertain to more abstract knowledge struc­tures. We further present distinct semiotic profiles of three phases underpinning the dynamic process of dialogic travel planning: a predominantly indexical, an indexical-iconic, and a diagrammatic-iconic phase. Overall, indexicality again proves to be a fun­damental principle of multimodal interaction. Indexicality conditions and orchestrates not only the interlocutors’ bodily anchorage in integrated physical and mental spaces (Fauconnier, Sweetser, Turner), but also their (inter-)subjective dialogue behavior and the multimodal fabric of emerging diagrams.