Home Objects, Frozen Actions, and Identity: A Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Objects, Frozen Actions, and Identity: A Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis

  • Sigrid Norris

    Sigrid Norris is Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Director of the Multimodal Research Centre at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. She is the author of Analyzing multimodal interaction: A methodological framework (2004), rosarot und schwarz. Gedichte (2008), and Identity in (inter)action: Introducing multimodal interaction analysis (2011). Further, she is co-editor of Discourse in Action: Introducing mediated discourse analysis (2005), editor of Multimodality in practice: Investigating theory-in-practice-through-methodology (2011), and co-editor of Interactions, Images and Texts: A Reader in Multimodality (2014). Her main research interests are the theoretical/methodological development of multimodality and multimodal identity production.

    EMAIL logo
    and Boonyalakha Makboon

    Boonyalakha Makboon is a PhD candidate at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand and a member of the Multimodal Researcher Centre. Her main research interest is the identity production of vegetarians in Thailand, using a multimodal perspective.

Published/Copyright: May 27, 2015

Abstract

In this article, we take a multimodal (inter)action analytical approach, showing how objects in everyday life are identity telling. As social actors surround themselves with objects, multiple actions from producing the objects to acquiring and placing them in the environment are embedded within. Here, we investigate examples from two different ethnographic studies, using the notion of frozen actions. One of our examples comes from a 5-month-long ethnographic study on identity production of three vegetarians in Thailand (Makboon, forthcoming); and the other example comes from a 4-month-long ethnographic study of three working parents on the East Coast of North America (Norris, 2006, 2008). We illustrate the frozen actions embedded in particular objects and argue that the analysis of frozen actions allows us to partially understand how identity is produced and experienced by social actors in everyday life.

About the authors

Sigrid Norris

Sigrid Norris is Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Director of the Multimodal Research Centre at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. She is the author of Analyzing multimodal interaction: A methodological framework (2004), rosarot und schwarz. Gedichte (2008), and Identity in (inter)action: Introducing multimodal interaction analysis (2011). Further, she is co-editor of Discourse in Action: Introducing mediated discourse analysis (2005), editor of Multimodality in practice: Investigating theory-in-practice-through-methodology (2011), and co-editor of Interactions, Images and Texts: A Reader in Multimodality (2014). Her main research interests are the theoretical/methodological development of multimodality and multimodal identity production.

Boonyalakha Makboon

Boonyalakha Makboon is a PhD candidate at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand and a member of the Multimodal Researcher Centre. Her main research interest is the identity production of vegetarians in Thailand, using a multimodal perspective.

References

Abousnnouga, G. and Machin, D. (2010). Analysing the language of war monuments. Visual Communication, 9(2):131149.Search in Google Scholar

Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2004a). Language and identity. In: A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, A.Duranti (Ed.)., 369–394. Malden, MA: Blackwell.10.1002/9780470996522.ch16Search in Google Scholar

Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2004b). Theorizing identity in language and sexuality research. Language and Society, 33(4):501547.10.1017/S0047404504334020Search in Google Scholar

Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4–5):585614.Search in Google Scholar

Gee, J. P. (2011). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses, 4th Edition. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Goodwin, C. (1994). Professional vision. American Anthropologist, 96:606633.Search in Google Scholar

Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T.. (2006 [1996]). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd edn). London, New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203619728Search in Google Scholar

Makboon, B. (forthcoming). Spiritual vegetarianism: identity in everyday life of Thai non-traditional religious cult members. PhD thesis, Auckland University of Technology.Search in Google Scholar

Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2002). Multimodal Discourse Analysis: A Conceptual Framework. Georgetown University Round Table on Linguistics. Washington, DC, March 7–9.Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing Multimodal Interaction: A Methodological Framework. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203379493Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2006). Identity change in everyday life: learning how to be a working mother. In: 85th American Education Research Association Conference, San Francisco, USA, April 8–12.Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2007). The micropolitics of personal national and ethnicity identity. Discourse & Society, 18(5):653674.Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2008). Personal identity construction: a multimodal perspective. In: Advances in Discourse Studies, V.Bhatia, J.Flowerdew, and R.Jones (Eds.), 132149. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2011a). Identity in (Inter)Action: Introducing Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis. Berlin and Boston, MA: de Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9781934078280Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2011b). Practice-based research: multimodal explorations through poetry and painting. Multimodal Communication, 1(1):3146.10.1515/mc-2012-0004Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2011c). Three hierarchical positions of deictic gesture in relation to spoken language: a multimodal interaction analysis. Visual Communication, 10(2):119.10.1177/1470357211398439Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2014). The impact of literacy-based schooling on learning a creative practice: modal configurations, practices and discourses. Multimodal Communication, 3(2):181195.Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2015). Interaction – language in multimodal action. In: Handbook “Language in Multimodal Contexts”, N.-M.Klug, and H.Stöckl (Eds.) Berlin and Boston, MA: de Gruyter Mouton.Search in Google Scholar

O’Toole, M. (1994). The Language of Displayed Art. Leicester: Leicester University Press.Search in Google Scholar

O’Toole, M. (2004). Opera Ludentes: The Sydney opera house at work and play. In: Multimodal Discourse Analysis, K. L.O’Halloran (Eds.), 1127. London and New York: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar

Pietikäinena, S., Lane, P., Saloa, H. and Laihiala-Kankainen, S. (2011). Frozen actions in the artic linguistic landscape: a nexus analysis of language processes in visual space. International Journal of Multilingualism, 8(4):227298.Search in Google Scholar

Rüesch, J. and Kees, W. (1956). Nonverbal Communication: Notes on the Visual Perception of Human Relations, 8995. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar

Scollon, R. (1997). Handbills, tissues, and condoms: a site of engagement for a construction of identity in public discourse. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1(1):3961.Search in Google Scholar

Scollon, R. (1998). Mediated Discourse as Social Interaction. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar

Scollon, R. (2001). Mediated Discourse: The Nexus of Practice. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Streeck, J. (1996). How to do things with things: objets Trouvés and symbolization. Human Studies, 19:365384.Search in Google Scholar

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, M.Cole, V.John-Steiner, S.Scribner, and E.Souberman (Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Wertsch, J. (1991). Voices of the Mind: A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Wertsch, J. (1998). Mind as Action. New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Whalen, J., Whalen, M. and Henderson, K. (2002). Improvisational choreography in teleservice work. The British Journal of Sociology, 53:239258.Search in Google Scholar

Wodak, R. (2003). Multiple identities: the roles of female parliamentarians in the EU parliament. In: Handbook of Discourse and Gender, J.Holmes, and M.Meyerhoff (Eds.)., 671–698. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1002/9780470756942.ch29Search in Google Scholar

Wodak, R. (2004). National and transnational identities: European and other identities constructed in interview with EU officials. In: Transnational Identities, R. K.Hermann, T.Risse,, and M. B.Brewer (Eds.)., 97–128. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Search in Google Scholar

Wodak, R. (2009). The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual. Basinstoke: Palgrave.Search in Google Scholar

Wodak, R. (2012). Language, power and identity. Language Teaching, 45:215223.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2015-5-27
Published in Print: 2015-6-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

Downloaded on 28.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/mc-2015-0007/html
Scroll to top button