Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on the author's experience as a sociolinguist and a mountain climber, this book shows how the expertise and affect-laden experience of Japanese rock climbers can be illuminated through linguistic methods and theories. Through a detailed investigation of multimodal interaction among climbers, the book explores a number of significant sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological themes, including spatial frames of reference, intersubjectivity, chronotopic configurations, and poetic formations of talk. In doing so, it presents climbing as a condensed locus of human interactions in which the integrated analysis of semiotic processes brings to light a new set of relationships between humans and their surroundings. Grounded in an extended and focused participation in rock climbing activities and interviews with other climbers, Kuniyoshi Kataoka examines the assemblage of semiotic resources including the language, the body, and the space mediated by their climbing equipment and t
Trade ReviewIn rock climbing, interactions, gestures, bodies, objects and space all synchronize together. Kuniyoshi Kataoka has developed a richly textured analysis of Japanese rock climbers’ practices in naturalistic settings. This innovative book will inspire future research on how humans move through space and guide each other as they do so. -- Niko Besnier, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Kataoka has provided amazingly rich ethnographic descriptions of the practices, narratives and poetry associated with mountain climbing. This is a great book for anyone interested in Linguistic Anthropology, Japanese Pragmatics, and Interaction Studies and will be a vital resource for years to come. -- Akira Takada, Kyoto University, Japan
Table of ContentsPreface 1. Introduction 2. Theories and Concepts 3. Rock Climbing as an Institution 4. “Above” and “Below” in Vertical Space 5. A “Massive Fall” and a “Near-Death” Accident 6. Multimodal Spatial Problem Solving 7. Gossip: The Living and the Dead 8. Making Sense of Climbing Experiences Glossary References Index
