Tactile interactions: insights from palm-up, finger pointing, and holds

Abstract This paper investigates palm-ups, finger pointings, and holds in Tactile Swedish Sign Language interactions. Our objectives are threefold: scrutinizing the frequency of use of the three interactive markers, studying their functions, and describing the differences and similarities as compared to other signed and spoken languages. Data from two corpora were selected; one was collected in a studio and the other in natural settings. Fifty-nine minutes were analyzed, consisting of five deafblind dyads. Results show that holds are the most frequent markers, followed by palm-up and finger pointing. The most frequent functions of both holds and palm-up are monitoring (i.e., checking for understanding) followed by planning (i.e., producing the marker while making a cognitive effort to edit a term or processing discourse). Regarding other modalities, the preference in the use of these markers patterns with previous results on signed and spoken languages, but the functions are slightly less varied in our sample.