Leelo Keevallik

Deputy Head of Department, Professor

I am interested in how people make sense of each other, not only through language and grammar but also by using their bodies, artefacts, and movement. I do multimodal analysis of dance classes, pilates instruction, and manual work.

Interactional linguistics, embodiment, and dance instruction

Leelo Keevallik works in the field of interactional linguistics and multimodal interaction analysis, exploring the sequentiality of social action and the temporal nature of grammar.

She has published on the development and use of pragmatic particles, features of grammar, such as projection, clause combining, clitics, and reduplication, as well as prosody in interaction. Having re-interpreted the function of pro-forms and deixis in real-time embodied contexts, she is currently looking into practices of coordinating grammar with the body. The focus is on non-lexical vocalizations, such as strain grunts, pain cries, gustatory mms, and sounds deployed by dance instructors or robots. Couple dance.

Research interests

Emergent grammar
Interactional linguistics
Conversation analysis
Multimodality
Multisensoriality
Non-lexical vocalizations

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Film

Non-lexical Vocalizations: An introduction

Why study human vocalizations? In this video we explain how and why non-lexical vocalizations are useful tools of communication, among other things with infants and robots.

Why do you grunt at the gym?

People use several vocalizations to communicate that they, e.g., like the food or are unhappy about a game move. The sounds are tied to bodily experiences and feelings. In this video you will learn how we understand each other without words.

The spoken language in this filmclip is Swedish.

Publications

Leelo Keevallik (2024)

Strain grunts and the organization of participation

New Perspectives on Goffman in Language and Interaction , s.143-169 Continue to DOI

Leelo Keevallik (2021)

Vocalizations in dance classes teach body knowledge

Linguistics Vanguard , Vol.7 Continue to DOI

Cover of publication 'Sketch, bookcoover.'

Leelo Keevallik (2018)

What Does Embodied Interaction Tell Us About Grammar?

Research on Language and Social Interaction , Vol.51 Continue to DOI

2025

Leelo Keevallik, Emily Hofstetter, Agnes Lofgren, Sally Wiggins Young (2025) Response cries and syntax Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 240, p. 91-108 (Article in journal)

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2024

Agnes Löfgren, Leelo Keevallik, Emily Hofstetter (2024) Are you serious? Workplace agenda and aesthetic negotiations with depictions at opera rehearsals Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 231, p. 82-98 (Article in journal)

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Charles Antaki, Leelo Keevallik, Elwys De Stefani (2024) What do journal editors look for in publishing conversation-analytic work? The Cambridge handbook of methods in conversation analysis, p. 922-928 (Chapter in book)

Agnes Lofgren, Leelo Keevallik, Emily Hofstetter (2024) Are you serious? Workplace agenda and aesthetic negotiations with depictions at opera rehearsals Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 231, p. 82-98 (Article in journal)

Continue to DOI

Leelo Keevallik, Emily Hofstetter, Agnes Löfgren, Sally Wiggins Young (2024) Repetition for real-time coordination of action: Lexical and non-lexical vocalizations in collaborative time management Discourse Studies, Vol. 26, p. 334-357 (Article in journal)

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Research

Three Female Dancers Dancing. Photo: Pixabay.com

Non-lexical Vocalizations

This project studies vocal practices for achieving embodied coordination in real time, with a focus on non-lexical vocalizations, such as ugh, aargh.

Books

Emergent Syntax

Syntax emerges in human interaction. In this volume we study complex clauses in their everyday use and discuss functional reasons for their structuring.

Multimodal interaktionsanalys

This is a textbook for advanced level students who are interested in human communication. It provides the methodological basics of interaction analysis and offers insights into research on language, psychology, sociology, teaching, and human-robot as well as human-animal interaction.

Sounds on the Margins of Language

We explore the use of non-lexical vocalizations to show how people use them for meaning-making, such as for performing various physical and mental states. Occasionally they are more effective than words.

News

Neferti X. M. Tadiar infront of a photo of Moa Martinson inside Norrköpings Stadsmuseum.

Moa Martinson visiting professor will get new perspectives of the world

Neferti X. M. Tadiar has one foot in New York and the other in Manila. As the visiting professor in the name of Moa Martinson, she will do research on colonialism, migration, capitalism, and environmental change from a new corner of the world.

Poet to become visiting professor in Tage Danielsson’s name

She devotes herself to the power of words and sees poetry as a tool of knowledge. Athena Farrokhzad steps into academia with the ambition to shake up the templates with the help of rhymes and humour.

They examine our interaction in detail

It’s easy to think that communication consists mainly of speech. But much of it takes place through gesture, facial expression and sound. Researchers study how we use much more than words in interaction with other humans as well as with robots.

Organisation

Le mur des je t'aime. Place des Abbesses, Paris. By Britchi Mirela [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons.

The Language and Culture research environment

The Language and Culture research environment is a meeting place for linguistic and literary research in a cultural context.

Department of Culture and Society (IKOS)

At the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), social sciences and the humanities gather in environments where research and education work together.

Supervision of PhD students

Hannah Pelikan

Postdoc

Emile Bellewes

PhD student

Burak Alp Çakar

PhD student

Leelo Keevallik