Interactivity and Languaging

Abstract

Abstract This paper clarifies the relation between interactivity and languaging. Hitherto proponents of interactivity have tacitly distinguished between two ways in which “interactivity” can be used. While sometimes espousing a wide view, empirical work on the phenomenon has focused on interactivity in a much narrower sense. Having clarified this distinction, I pursue the more important wide sense in tracing the role of interactivity to the emergence of languaging in early infancy. Occurrences of interactivity allow the child to orient toward nonlocal events and resources that, gradually, enable his or her experience to draw on linguistic denotation and an emerging sense of personhood. Finally, I propose that this can be understood in relation to existential meaning. When considered as intrinsic to both languaging and interactivity, such meanings can guide how wordings are brought into play as people attune to cultural norms and expectations.