A Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures: Language, Interaction, and Embodiment

We discuss the nature of embodied actions with regard to discursive psychology (DP) and conversation analysis. Whereas embodiment has been considered a limitation on the analytic reach of DP, investigations of multimodality have brought physical movements and environmental objects within the purview of analysis. What people feel, think, intend, taste, and see are amenable to systematic study as integral elements in talk-in-interaction. Nevertheless, analysing the embodied nature of interaction requires at some point its rendering into words. We examine a range of studies including the chapters of this volume and examples from television sports coverage, for what they reveal about the role of language by both participants and analysts in conceptualizing the nature of the nonverbal, and the work that such verbal formulations may do.