Kinship-based deference among Jaru siblings: A collaborative, adaptive, and multimodal accomplishment

Abstract

In the Jaru community of northern Western Australia, certain in-laws and relatives are categorized as being in a highly respectful relationship in which they are expected to pay deference to one another. This conversation-analytic study closely examines the deferential practices that are used among three Jaru siblings in an ordinary multi-party conversation, providing insights into the dynamic and cooperative nature of kin-based respect and demonstrating that the practices in question readily diverge from metapragmatic stereotypes to fit the interactional context. The deferential practices function as sociopragmatic indexicals that form a multimodal register, encompassing both linguistic and bodily visual resources.