Understanding as an embodied, situated and sequential achievement in interaction

This paper aims at outlining the sequential, situated and embodied dimensions of understanding in interaction. This perspective on understanding, originating in Ryle and Wittgenstein, further developed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, focuses on the orderly unfolding of sequences of actions in time. It also focuses on understanding as a collective achievement, publicly displayed and interactively oriented to within the production and the monitoring of action. Its accountability is built through a plurality of displays, claiming and demonstrating understanding, thanks to the mobilization of linguistic and embodied resources at specific sequential positions. The paper discusses evidences of understanding as they are publicly displayed by the participants in interaction: It both offers a discussion of the ethnomethodological and conversation analytic literature, and an analysis an empirical case, focusing on the interplay of embodied and sequential features in the production and monitoring of understanding.