Doing inspecting in interaction: seeing the physiognomy of an object

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explores the practice of doing inspecting an object, more specifically, the practice of leaning over an object that has been seen in a certain way. It offers a single-case analysis of two segments in which doing inspecting is done in an enhanced way, accompanied by touching the object. It argues that seeing the details of an object is done not necessarily to collect detailed information about the object but as a constitutive part of the ascribability of a specific action to the whole of the viewer’s concurrent verbal and other behavior. Seeing the details of an object is seeing the object in an entirely new fashion. Following the empirical analysis, its implications for some aspects of perception (multimodality of perception, perspectives, and the unity of the body) will be discussed. Data are in Japanese with English translation.