The chapter is concerned with a central topic in conversation analysis: projection. It approaches projection from a multimodal perspective and starts from the observation that projections can have varying degrees of strength (Auer 2005); interactionally, the obligation to respond can thus be more or less strong (Stivers & Rossano 2010).
In CA, the concept of projection has first been applied to turns and turn constructional units as a principle that enables participants to recognize unit-types and to anticipate points of possible completion (Sacks/Schegloff/Jefferson 1974). It has also been used for analyses of larger projects such as argumentation, narratives etc. Projection operates upon different domains both in interaction and in grammar (Auer 2005), ranging from micro-phenomena on the phonological level to linguistic elements on the level of morphology, lexico-semantics, and syntax. In copresent interaction, visible bodily behavior plays a crucial role in foreshadowing things to come (Schegloff 1984; Streeck 1995, 2009; Streeck/Hartge 1992; Streeck/Knapp 1992) and preparing next actions (Dausendschön-Gay/Krafft 2009).
Drawing on video data and mobile eye-tracking recordings of various settings, deictic practices are chosen as a genuinely multimodal phenomenon (Stukenbrock in print) to investigate how verbal and embodied resources are mobilized to project next moments, how these projections are temporally organized and oriented to by the participants to create joint attention and negotiate courses of action. A particular focus will be placed on the (reflexive) potential of gaze as a resource in moments in which various projections come into play simultaneously.