Car talk: Integrating texts, bodies, and changing landscapes

Making use of videotaped recordings of interaction in cars filmed as middle class families pursue their daily activities, we examine some of the ways in which talk while driving includes as parts of its intrinsic organization ongoing attention to phenomena beyond the stream of speech. Important consideration is given to issues posed by the task of driving while talking about a seeable field in either the unfolding landscape or a textual artifact within the car itself Of particular interest to our analysis is how such phenomena are attended to, collaboratively recognized, and incorporated into the ongoing organization of talk This process involves making use of a range of resources including deictics, perceptual directives, address terms, pointings (C. Goodwin 2003), etc., to locate for others these phenomena, as well as forms of stance display that inform how the speaker aligns towards the event. Through their gaze direction, questions, and displays of understandings recipients can display their response to a noticing or reporting.