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How does linguistic framing of events influence co-speech gestures?

Insights from crosslinguistic variations and similarities
  • Aslı Özyürek , Sotaro Kita , Shanley E.M. Allen , Reyhan Furman and Amanda Brown
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Gestural Communication in Nonhuman and Human Primates
This chapter is in the book Gestural Communication in Nonhuman and Human Primates

Abstract

What are the relations between linguistic encoding and gestural representations of events during online speaking? The few studies that have been conducted on this topic have yielded somewhat incompatible results with regard to whether and how gestural representations of events change with differences in the preferred semantic and syntactic encoding possibilities of languages. Here we provide large scale semantic, syntactic and temporal analyses of speech- gesture pairs that depict 10 different motion events from 20 Turkish and 20 English speakers. We find that the gestural representations of the same events differ across languages when they are encoded by different syntactic frames (i.e., verb-framed or satellite-framed). However, where there are similarities across languages, such as omission of a certain element of the event in the linguistic encoding, gestural representations also look similar and omit the same content. The results are discussed in terms of what gestures reveal about the influence of language specific encoding on on-line thinking patterns and the underlying interactions between speech and gesture during the speaking process.

Abstract

What are the relations between linguistic encoding and gestural representations of events during online speaking? The few studies that have been conducted on this topic have yielded somewhat incompatible results with regard to whether and how gestural representations of events change with differences in the preferred semantic and syntactic encoding possibilities of languages. Here we provide large scale semantic, syntactic and temporal analyses of speech- gesture pairs that depict 10 different motion events from 20 Turkish and 20 English speakers. We find that the gestural representations of the same events differ across languages when they are encoded by different syntactic frames (i.e., verb-framed or satellite-framed). However, where there are similarities across languages, such as omission of a certain element of the event in the linguistic encoding, gestural representations also look similar and omit the same content. The results are discussed in terms of what gestures reveal about the influence of language specific encoding on on-line thinking patterns and the underlying interactions between speech and gesture during the speaking process.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. About the Authors ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Evolution of language and the role of gestural communication
  6. The syntactic motor system 7
  7. Part II. Gestural communication in nonhuman primates
  8. The gestural communication of apes 37
  9. Gestural communication in three species of macaques ( Macaca mulatta , M. nemestrina , M. arctoides ) 53
  10. Multimodal concomitants of manual gesture by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) 69
  11. Requesting gestures in captive monkeys and apes 83
  12. Cross-fostered chimpanzees modulate signs of American Sign Language 97
  13. Part III. Gestural communication in human primates
  14. Human twelve-month-olds point cooperatively to share interest with and helpfully provide information for a communicative partner 123
  15. From action to language through gesture 141
  16. The link and differences between deixis and symbols in children’s early gestural-vocal system 163
  17. A cross-cultural comparison of communicative gestures in human infants during the transition to language 183
  18. How does linguistic framing of events influence co-speech gestures? 199
  19. The two faces of gesture 219
  20. Part IV. Future directions
  21. Gestures in human and nonhuman primates 237
  22. Book Review
  23. Michael C. Corballis (2002). From hand to mouth. The origins of language 261
  24. Index 281
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.10.15ozy

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. About the Authors ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Evolution of language and the role of gestural communication
  6. The syntactic motor system 7
  7. Part II. Gestural communication in nonhuman primates
  8. The gestural communication of apes 37
  9. Gestural communication in three species of macaques ( Macaca mulatta , M. nemestrina , M. arctoides ) 53
  10. Multimodal concomitants of manual gesture by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) 69
  11. Requesting gestures in captive monkeys and apes 83
  12. Cross-fostered chimpanzees modulate signs of American Sign Language 97
  13. Part III. Gestural communication in human primates
  14. Human twelve-month-olds point cooperatively to share interest with and helpfully provide information for a communicative partner 123
  15. From action to language through gesture 141
  16. The link and differences between deixis and symbols in children’s early gestural-vocal system 163
  17. A cross-cultural comparison of communicative gestures in human infants during the transition to language 183
  18. How does linguistic framing of events influence co-speech gestures? 199
  19. The two faces of gesture 219
  20. Part IV. Future directions
  21. Gestures in human and nonhuman primates 237
  22. Book Review
  23. Michael C. Corballis (2002). From hand to mouth. The origins of language 261
  24. Index 281
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