A linguistic anthropological analysis of interaction in Ishigaki : A quest for the intersection between language, gesture, and environment

基于对石垣岛(矢山群岛的主岛，构成日本冲绳县的最南端的几个岛群中的最南端)实地考察时收集的视频记录数据，本研究探讨了说石垣方言的日语使用者如何在言语和手势中表达空间。研究表明，石垣语者对基本方向的描述经常与他们的手势相匹配，并以平行的方向精确度出现。石垣的地理位置和住房结构似乎与他们说话和手势的方向性要求有关。在这个四面环海的小岛上，大海和南方的方向往往是人们生活的重要参照点，特别是在台风季节。在说石垣语的人中，不仅有语言和手势的支持，而且还有地理和方向准确性的支持。此外，石垣的人还会根据对话者的背景改变空间参照系。因此，他们对空间参照系的使用是主体间性建构的。

Based on data from video-recordings collected during field visits to Ishigaki Island (the main island of the Yaeyama Islands, the southernmost of several island groups, making up the prefecture of Okinawa, Japan), this study explores how Japanese speakers of Isigaki-dialect express space in their speech and gesture. The study demonstrates that the description of cardinal directions in Ishigaki speakers' speech is frequently matched by and occurs with a parallel directional precision in their gesture. The geography of Ishigaki and housing structures seem to be related to the demand for directional accuracy in their speech and gesture. On this small island surrounded by the sea, the direction of the sea and the south often serve as crucial reference points for people's lives especially during the typhoon season. There is not only linguistic and gestural support but also geographic and support for directional accuracy among Ishigaki speakers. Furthermore, people in Ishigaki change the spatial frame of reference, according to their interlocutors' background. Thus, their use of spatial frame of reference is intersubjectively constructed.