Reformulation is remarkably frequent in discourse and has been the subject
of much work in spoken languages, both on written and oral data. Because
of its metalinguistic nature, combined with its general aim of clarifying an
expression, the act of reformulation offers a window to the way speakers
process and adjust their expression in discourse. However, to date, the study
of reformulation has hardly taken into account the now increasingly recognized multimodal and semiotically composite nature ...
Reformulation is remarkably frequent in discourse and has been the subject
of much work in spoken languages, both on written and oral data. Because
of its metalinguistic nature, combined with its general aim of clarifying an
expression, the act of reformulation offers a window to the way speakers
process and adjust their expression in discourse. However, to date, the study
of reformulation has hardly taken into account the now increasingly recognized multimodal and semiotically composite nature of language. This study
aims to revisit the notion of reformulation from a multimodal perspective
by comparing the use and semiotic composition of reformulations in the
discourse of speakers and signers, as well as in the productions of interpreters. In doing so, we lay the foundations for a comparative study of discourse in signed and spoken language that accounts for the multimodality
and semiotic complexity of language practices in different human ecologies.
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