Gestures and multimodal development
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Michèle Guidetti
Abstract
Children begin to gesture long before talking. Gestures, such as pointing or waving goodbye, constitute the principal means of interacting conventionally with others before the emergence of the lexicon. Children continue to gesture after they start to talk, and through to adulthood. In spite of that, some key concepts related to gesture and language acquisition, both theoretical and methodological, still remain unclear and/or are out of consensus among scholars, such as gestures and language acquisition and evolution, multimodal development, form and function in gestures, and gesture classification and terminology. To better understand language acquisition, we will discuss these issues in the light of Adam Kendon’s work.
Abstract
Children begin to gesture long before talking. Gestures, such as pointing or waving goodbye, constitute the principal means of interacting conventionally with others before the emergence of the lexicon. Children continue to gesture after they start to talk, and through to adulthood. In spite of that, some key concepts related to gesture and language acquisition, both theoretical and methodological, still remain unclear and/or are out of consensus among scholars, such as gestures and language acquisition and evolution, multimodal development, form and function in gestures, and gesture classification and terminology. To better understand language acquisition, we will discuss these issues in the light of Adam Kendon’s work.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- A foreword vii
- From gesture in conversation to visible action as utterance 1
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Part I. Gaze and face
- Including facial gestures in gesture-speech ensembles 15
- Mutual gaze and recognition 35
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Part II. Manual gestures – quotable gestures and pointing
- Gesture in the communicative ecology of a South African township 59
- The emblem as metaphor 75
- Pointing, talk, and the bodies 95
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Part III. Manual gestures – their nature and relationship to language
- Gesture as “deliberate expressive movement” 127
- On the lower limit of gesture 153
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Part IV. Language evolution
- The word according to Adam 177
- The intelligibility of gesture within a framework of co-operative action 199
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Part V. Sign systems
- Signs and space in Arandic sand narratives 219
- Different strokes 245
- Gesture in all its forms 289
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Part VI. Children language development
- The development of two pragmatic gestures of the so-called Open Hand Supine family in Italian children 311
- How gestures help children to track reference in narrative 331
- Gestures and multimodal development 351
- Name index 371
- Subject index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- A foreword vii
- From gesture in conversation to visible action as utterance 1
-
Part I. Gaze and face
- Including facial gestures in gesture-speech ensembles 15
- Mutual gaze and recognition 35
-
Part II. Manual gestures – quotable gestures and pointing
- Gesture in the communicative ecology of a South African township 59
- The emblem as metaphor 75
- Pointing, talk, and the bodies 95
-
Part III. Manual gestures – their nature and relationship to language
- Gesture as “deliberate expressive movement” 127
- On the lower limit of gesture 153
-
Part IV. Language evolution
- The word according to Adam 177
- The intelligibility of gesture within a framework of co-operative action 199
-
Part V. Sign systems
- Signs and space in Arandic sand narratives 219
- Different strokes 245
- Gesture in all its forms 289
-
Part VI. Children language development
- The development of two pragmatic gestures of the so-called Open Hand Supine family in Italian children 311
- How gestures help children to track reference in narrative 331
- Gestures and multimodal development 351
- Name index 371
- Subject index 373
