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

本研究以石垣岛（日本冲绳县八重山群岛最南端的主岛）为研究对象，探讨了日本人使用石垣方言时如何通过言语和手势表达空间。研究表明，石垣语者的语音中的方位描述经常与手势中的平行方向精确性相匹配。石垣的地理和房屋结构似乎与他们的语言和手势对方向准确性的需求有关。在这个四面环海的小岛上，尤其是在台风季节，大海和南方的方向往往是人们生活的重要参考点。石垣语使用者不仅有语言和手势的支持，还有地理和方向准确性的支持。此外，石垣市的人们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.