8 - Building Action by Combining Different Kinds of Materials

Summary

Chil is able to build diverse action with exactly the same words (e.g., “No, No, No”) by speaking each with highly varied prosody. Rather than being constituted within a single, coherent semiotic medium, such as language, action can be built by rapidly joining together unlike materials with complementary properties, a process that will be called lamination. Within such local hybrid arrangements the distinctive attributes provided by alternative forms of semiosis mutually elaborate each other to create a whole that cannot be found in any element by itself. The combinatorial organization of heterogeneity is able to intertwine creatively and contingently within a single action quite different kinds of resources: language structure, gestures, materials invoked from the surrounding environment, structures contributed by other actors, etc. These processes will be further explored in subsequent chapters. Chil’s rapid, fluent timing is also quite central to his power as a speaker.

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