Startseite Politeness, performance, and pointing: gesture in Chinese reality television
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

Politeness, performance, and pointing: gesture in Chinese reality television

  • Lysander Schleh

    Lysander Schleh is a PhD Fellow at Tulane University. His research interests include gesture, phonology, and second language acquisition. Address for Correspondence: 6823 Saint Charles Avenue, Tulane University, Dinwiddie Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA.

    EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 6. September 2022

Abstract

This study examines the use of gesture by participants of the reality television show Sisters Who Make Waves. Based on 23.5 h of footage involving 30 participants, the analysis focuses on gestural communication by the female participants, who must straddle a formal/informal communicative environment dictated by the medium of reality television. More specifically, I examine two features of pointing gestures by the participants: social parameters and context constraints. The main interest is how a combination of general cultural norms as well as considerations of the interlocutor’s social status contribute to gesture use. Context constraints and pragmatic concerns are also analyzed regarding the choice of manual or non-manual pointing gestures. These factors are seen to play a strong role in gesture choice. The findings show that the participants are sensitive to these social and contextual variables, especially regarding concepts like saving face, politeness, and friendly intimacy.


Corresponding author: Lysander Schleh, Tulane University, 6823 Saint Charles Avenue, Dinwiddie Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA, E-mail:

About the author

Lysander Schleh

Lysander Schleh is a PhD Fellow at Tulane University. His research interests include gesture, phonology, and second language acquisition. Address for Correspondence: 6823 Saint Charles Avenue, Tulane University, Dinwiddie Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA.

Appendix

Signs Used in Gesture Notation

  •  = onset of thumb point

  •  = onset of hand point

  •  = onset of index finger point

References

Brown, Lucien & Bodo Winter. 2019. Multimodal indexicality in Korean: “doing deference” and “performing intimacy” through nonverbal behavior. Journal of Politeness Research 15(1). 25–54. https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2016-0042.Suche in Google Scholar

CFR Part 46 -- Protection of Human Subjects. 2022. Code of Federal Regulations. Available at: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-A/part-46.Suche in Google Scholar

Chu, Mingyuan & Peter Hagoort. 2014. Synchronization of speech and gesture: Evidence for interaction in action. Journal of Experimental Psychology 143(4). 16.10.1037/a0036281Suche in Google Scholar

ELAN. 2020. Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute of for Psycholinguistics.Suche in Google Scholar

Enfield, Nick J. 2001. ‘Lip-pointing’: A discussion of form and function with reference to data from Laos. Gesture 1(2). 185–212.10.1075/gest.1.2.06enfSuche in Google Scholar

García-Gómez, Antonio. 2012. Perceptions of assertiveness among women: Triggering and managing conflict in reality television. Discourse & Communication 6(4). 379–399. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481312457500.Suche in Google Scholar

García-Gómez, Antonio. 2018. Dragons’ Den: Enacting persuasion in reality television. Discourse, Context & Media 21. 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2017.09.014.Suche in Google Scholar

Ishi, Carlos T., Ryusuke Mikata & Hiroshi Ishiguro. 2020. Person-directed pointing gestures and inter-personal relationship: Expression of politeness to friendliness by Android Robots. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 5(4). 6081–6088. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2020.3011354.Suche in Google Scholar

Kendon, Adam. 2004. Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511807572Suche in Google Scholar

Kendon, Adam & Laura Versante. 2003. Pointing by hand in “Neapolitan”. In Sotaro Kita (ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Suche in Google Scholar

Kita, Sotaro & James Essegbey. 2001. Pointing left in Ghana: How a taboo on the use of the left hand influences gestural practice. Gesture 1(1). 73–95. https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.1.1.06kit.Suche in Google Scholar

Li, Heng & Yu Cao. 2019. Hands occupied: Chinese farmers use more non-manual pointing than herders. Lingua 222. 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2019.02.006.Suche in Google Scholar

Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria & Pilar Garces-Conejos Blitvich. 2013. Reality television: A discourse- analytical perspective. In Nuria Lorenzo-Dus & Pilar Garces-Conejos Blitvich (eds.), Real talk: Reality televison and discourse analysis in action, 9–23. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137313461_2Suche in Google Scholar

Mao, Lu Ming Robert. 1994. Beyond politeness theory: ‘Face’ revisited and renewed. Journal of Pragmatics 21. 451–486.10.1016/0378-2166(94)90025-6Suche in Google Scholar

Orie, Ọlanikẹ Ọla. 2009. Pointing the Yoruba way. Gesture 9(2). 237–261. https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.9.2.04ori.Suche in Google Scholar

Pouw, Wim & James, A. Dixon. 2019. Quantifying gesture-speech synchrony. In Proceedings of the 6th gesture and speech in interaction conference. Paderborn: UB-PAD – Paderborn University Library. https://digital.ub.uni-paderborn.de/doi/10.17619/UNIPB/1-815 (accessed 3 January 2021).Suche in Google Scholar

Rose, Randall L. & Stacy L. Wood. 2005. Paradox and the consumption of authenticity through reality television. Journal of Consumer Research 32(2). 284–296. https://doi.org/10.1086/432238.Suche in Google Scholar

Trees, April R. & Valerie Manusov. 1998. Managing face concerns in criticism integrating nonverbal behaviors as a dimension of politeness in female friendship dyads. Human Communication Research 24(4). 564–583. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1998.tb00431.x.Suche in Google Scholar

Vilà-Giménez, Ingrid, Alfonso Igualada & Pilar Prieto. 2019. Observing storytellers who use rhythmic beat gestures improves children’s narrative discourse performance. Developmental Psychology 55(2). 250–262. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000604.Suche in Google Scholar

Wilkins, David. 2003. Why pointing with the index finger is not a universal (in sociocultural and semiotic terms). In Sotaro Kita (ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet, 171–215. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Suche in Google Scholar

Wu, Mengzhi. 2020. Sisters who make waves [乘风破浪的姐姐]. Mango TV. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QnMPcKgwkc&list=PLUM8x224JrX_JLTQ7QpQz2OkOkIbjx97c.Suche in Google Scholar

Yang, Ping. 2010a. Managing miànzi in Mandarin Chinese talk-in-interaction: A nonverbal perspective. Semiotica 181. 179–223. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2010.041.Suche in Google Scholar

Yang, Ping. 2010b. Nonverbal gender differences: Examining gestures of university-educated Mandarin Chinese speakers. Text & Talk 30(3). 333–357. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2010.017.Suche in Google Scholar

4K Video Downloader. 2020. Open Media.Suche in Google Scholar

Received: 2021-03-02
Accepted: 2022-08-15
Published Online: 2022-09-06
Published in Print: 2023-11-27

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 27.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/text-2021-0031/html
Button zum nach oben scrollen