Introduction to the Special Issue: GESTURE AND SPEECH IN INTERACTION

At present, the enquiry on gesture has reached its maturity as a branch of studies which endorses a multidisciplinary approach to communication. Notwithstanding its spread into a great number of sciences (Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Ethnology, among others), in recent times little attention has been paid to the phenomena involved, as far as the linguistic point of view is concerned. In particular, the communicative function of gesture has not been addressed enough by a strictly linguistic point of view. The aim of the present volume is to exploit some methodological instruments provided by Linguistics in order to devolve this subject to its genuine pertinence. Such a project implies the use of those empirical methodological tools to which psychologists (and also linguists) are familiar. In doing so, the data presented here are analysed as pieces of information that describe behaviour, that are also an integral part of the more complex phenomenon of human communication. To the extent that a study of this kind deals with gesture, a number of theoretical linguistic questions must be solved. The major claim of this book is that gesture and speech share the same cognitive, psychological and physiological roots. In fact, gesture will here be claimed to be integral to human language, its function within human communication being as much goal-directed (MacKay, 1972) - and, subsequently, communicative – as speech. Evidence for this assumption is provided by means of experiments on hearing and deaf subjects, in addition to a review of the major findings about the use and function of gesture in situations of handicap, such as aphasia and blindness. The ideas proposed here are a result of a long speculation on the role of gesture in communicative acts, on the one hand, and with respect to language, on the other hand, matured during my decennial professorship of Non-Verbal Communication, which began at the University of Pavia and is now continuing in Italy and abroad.

The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, 2021

The contemporary interdisciplinary domain of gesture studies is heavily rooted in the cognitive linguistics enterprise (Evans, Bergen & Zinken, 2007), especially concerning its “cognitive commitment” (Lakoff, 1990: 40), aligning gesture research within research on cognition. There is a growing body of literature highlighting that gesture may very well be part of language competence, playing a decisive role in language evolution and development (see infra). The dual cognitive and social function of gestures is the primary focus in gesture studies, with gestural phenomena being viewed as offering “a window into the mind” and playing a vital role in social interactions. After providing a historical perspective and a brief overview of some fundamentals of gesture studies, this chapter will focus on functional and formal aspects found in gesture studies highlighting their relationship with cognitive linguistics. The chapter will then discuss the need for research on gestural meaning-making, or “gesture phonology”, and gesture categorisation before highlighting future directions in the area of human computer interaction.

2012

With the increasing awareness of neural links between gesture and language, the traditional distinction between “linguistic” and “gestural” behaviour has become less clear. Gestures share many traits with certain components of speech (especially prosody) and some of their aspects are studied on a relatively similar methodological basis (Gibbon 2011). Yet, the integration of gesture studies and linguistics remains a challenging task. It is not only the question of unified terminology. Nicla Rossini, the author of the book under review, has a strong academic background in linguistics but most of her research has been devoted to non-verbal communication. Her work clearly draws on the pioneers of gesture studies (McNeill, Kendon) and traditional linguistics, but, simultaneously, it is strongly driven by the cognitivist way of thinking and recent advances in neuroscience. The cognitive-neuroscientific perspective seems to offer a platform where speech and gesture can be studied jointly i...

2012

Perhaps we keep finding iconicity because there is no other way for a semiotic system to be created and used by human beings without a close fit between form and function. After all, is it possible to make a mold for a statue that does not conform to the shape and dimensions and substance of the statue? Dan I. Slobin (2005, p. 321) In this paper I would like to reexamine some of the traditional dichotomies between language and gesture. In order to do so, it will be necessary to consider a three-way contrast—spoken languages, signed languages, and gesture. Without this three-way comparison, we risk collapsing contrasts between visual and auditory media with contrasts between linguistic structure and co-linguistic gestural structure. Such a comparison clearly belongs in this volume because Dan Slobin’s work on Thinking for Speaking has provided a crucial impetus to the research which feeds my new evaluation—both his own work on spoken and signed language, and the new perspectives on c...

Gesture, 2002

Visnyk of Lviv University. Philology Series. Issue 52, 88-103. L'viv, 2011. (Вісник Львівського університету. Серія філологічна.Випуск 52. Львів, 2011). (ISSN 2078-5534)

The spontaneous gesticulation that accompanies speech is an integral part of the linguistic system. Movements of the body are made in conjunction with speech to produce meanings and perform a num- ber of essential discourse functions. Gesture is ‘gestural action’ and gesture symbolism is dynamic, schematic and imagistic. Gestures don’t just ‘depict’ but actually ‘do things’: they shape ideas and fuel thought; they describe or report scenes; they give directions; they expose, report, and sum up argu- ments; they achieve textual cohesion and regulate communicative interaction. Gestures are a window into the mind. As gestures are made, visible kinetic form is given to invisible mental representations and hidden cognitive mechanisms. As hands move within the gesture space, objets of conception are created, and cognitive processing is ‘acted out,’ using symbolic acts of pointing and manipulation. Key cognitive abilities are revealed in the process: the ability to construe ideas and events as objects and substances (conceptual reification); the ability to form image-schematic representations of ‘things’ and movements, and to use these iconically or metaphoricially; the ability to make symbolic uses of space. Gestures are also found to play a central role in the expression of grammatical meanings and mecha- nisms. Thus grammar and gesture are clearly integrated in the expression of temporal dimensions, aspectual notions and modal stances. Gesture activity is also shown to be involved in the expression of concession and comparison. Finally, technical and methodological dimensions of gesture-analysis are discussed. The case is made for a new, creative approach to gesture watching – the ‘language and gesture workshops’ – where students may observe and physically explore co-speech gestures, develop their own choreographic variations, and work on sound, gesture and meaning correspondence.

Anthropological Linguistics, 2005

Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2015

How does sign language compare to gesture, on the one hand, and to spoken language on the other? At one time, sign was viewed as nothing more than a system of pictorial gestures with no linguistic structure. More recently, researchers have argued that sign is no different from spoken language with all of the same linguistic structures. The pendulum is currently swinging back toward the view that sign is gestural, or at least has gestural components. The goal of this review is to elucidate the relationships among sign language, gesture, and spoken language. We do so by taking a close look not only at how sign has been studied over the last 50 years, but also at how the spontaneous gestures that accompany speech have been studied. We come to the conclusion that signers gesture just as speakers do. Both produce imagistic gestures along with more categorical signs or words. Because, at the moment, it is difficult to tell where sign stops and where gesture begins, we suggest that sign sh...

Semiotica. Vol. 166. Pp. 463-476. , 2007

This essay addresses the complex issues related to kinesics as presented by David McNeill in Gesture and Thought. Gestures combine imagery and content. Crucial to the understanding of the meaning(s) of gesture is the context in which they are employed. This article considers a definition of gesture, the so-called Kendon-continuum (speech-linked gestures, emblems, pantomime, a brief history of gesture research, andgesture classification.

Annual Review of Psychology, 2013

When speakers talk, they gesture. The goal of this review is to investigate the contribution that these gestures make to how we communicate and think. Gesture can play a role in communication and thought at many timespans. We explore, in turn, gesture's contribution to how language is produced and understood in the moment; its contribution to how we learn language and other cognitive skills; and its contribution to how language is created over generations, over childhood, and on the spot. We find that the gestures speakers produce when they talk are integral to communication and can be harnessed in a number of ways. (a) Gesture reflects speakers' thoughts, often their unspoken thoughts, and thus can serve as a window onto cognition. Encouraging speakers to gesture can thus provide another route for teachers, clinicians, interviewers, etc., to better understand their communication partners. (b) Gesture can change speakers' thoughts. Encouraging gesture thus has the potential to change how students, patients, witnesses, etc., think about a problem and, as a result, alter the course of learning, therapy, or an interchange. (c) Gesture provides building blocks that can be used to construct a language. By watching how children and adults who do not already have a language put those blocks together, we can observe the process of language creation. Our hands are with us at all times and thus provide researchers and learners with an ever-present tool for understanding how we talk and think.