Coordinative resources of multimodal interaction in political talk-shows

The article has aimed at researching into political communication on the basis of talk-shows broadcasted on the German TV channel ZDF to reveal multimodal resources providing and accompanying the communicative activities produced by the subjects of TV-discussions. This research deals with conditions for a coordinative co-existence of different sensory modalities in multimodal interaction of political TV-shows. For the first time the difference between such concepts as cooperation and coordination is determined. Semiotic potential of such formal-structural variations as intra-and interpersonal relations is under detailed investigation. The author of the article argues that intrapersonal coordination is possible through the mechanism of the focusing and refocusing of the relevant information using units of all modal levels combined with metacommunicative language units and nonverbal recourses which duplicate and strengthen the verbal context. The visual space and the principle of simultaneity of the multimodal interaction make possible the interpersonal coordination. In this case coordinative relevance in such interpersonal aspect depends on the status-role dominance of communication participants, on their unison or polemical attitudes and on different space constellations. The authors of the article emphasize the need to extend the research frame for the complex interactive processes of the communication through their consideration in the multimodal aspect. This research will open possibilities for further study and categorization of multimodal aspects of interaction in the institutional discourse.