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- Volume 1, Issue, 2001
Gesture - Volume 1, Issue 2, 2001
Volume 1, Issue 2, 2001
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Children’s gestures are meant to be seen
Author(s): Martha W. Alibali and Lisa S. Donpp.: 113–127 (15)More LessThis study investigated whether children alter their gestures when their listeners cannot see those gestures. Sixteen kindergarten children viewed four short cartoon episodes. After each episode, the child retold the story to an adult listener. For two episodes, the child and listener sat face-to-face, and for the other two episodes, an opaque curtain was placed between them. Children gestured at a significantly higher rate when they could see their listeners than when they could not. However, the amount, fluency, and content of children’s speech did not differ across conditions. Thus, kindergarten children alter their gestures to suit their listeners, and the observed changes in gesture do not appear to depend on changes in speech.
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An experimental investigation of the role of different types of iconic gesture in communication: A semantic feature approach
Author(s): Geoffrey Beattie and Heather Shoveltonpp.: 129–149 (21)More LessRespondents, who had either seen or not seen a sample of the iconic gestures that encoders produce when narrating a story, answered questions about the original story and it was found that the overall accuracy score for respondents who saw the iconic gestures in addition to hearing the speech was 56.8% compared to 48.6% for speech only. This was a highly reliable effect and suggests that iconic gestures are indeed communicative. Character viewpoint gestures were also significantly more communicative than observer viewpoint gestures particularly about the semantic feature relative position, but the observer viewpoint gestures were effective at communicating information, particularly about the semantic features speed and shape. There were no significant correlations between the amount of information that gestures added to speech and the amount they conveyed in its absence, which suggests that the relationship between speech and gesture is not fixed but variable. The implications of this research for our fundamental conception of iconic gestures are considered.
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Gesture during speech in first and second language: Implications for lexical retrieval
Author(s): Uri Hadar, Rivka Dar and Amit Teitelmanpp.: 151–165 (15)More LessMany of the hand-arm gestures that accompany speech — especially wide and complex (‘ideational’) gestures — seem to be associated with speech dysfluencies and, it has been suggested, may facilitate word retrieval. Such facilitation may originate in either semantic or phonological processes. The present study has investigated this issue by looking at ideational gestures in five subjects who had Hebrew as first (L1) and English as second (L2) language. Their performance was monitored during speech in L1 and L2, as well as during a-vista translation from L1 to L2 and vice versa. It has been assumed that speech in L2 involves more lexical search than speech in L1 on both semantic and phonological levels. By contrast, translation between languages probably puts a heavier load on phonological processes than on semantic processes. This implies that speech in L2 should generate the highest rates of ideational gestures; translation into L2 should show the lowest gesture rates, while speech in L1 should show intermediate rates. These predictions were borne out by our results.
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O clever ‘He’s streetwise.’ When gestures become quotable: The case of the clever gesture
Author(s): Heather J. Brookespp.: 167–184 (18)More LessAmong urban black South Africans in the province of Gauteng, quotable gestures are a prominent feature of everyday communication. Most notable is a gesture commonly glossed as clever meaning ‘streetwise’ and ‘city slick.’ An analysis of the clever gesture in everyday communicative situations shows that it conveys a variety of meanings and functions related to the core paradigmatic meaning of ‘seeing’ and the core sociointeractional function of acceptance and inclusion. ‘Seeing’ is an important cultural value in black urban society particularly in relation to being clever. ‘Seeing’ is also the central characteristic of modern urban African identity in contrast to the ‘non-seeing’ rural, tribal, and primitive African. The clever gesture is a focused expression of this key social division within South African society. Consideration of the clever gesture in relation to its social role and the gestural repertoire suggests that key cultural concerns determine both quotable status and semantico-grammatical nature.
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‘Lip-pointing’: A discussion of form and function with reference to data from Laos
Author(s): N.J. Enfieldpp.: 185–211 (27)More Less‘Lip-pointing’ is a widespread but little-documented form of deictic gesture, which may involve not just protruding one or both lips, but also raising the head, sticking out the chin, lifting the eyebrows, among other things. This paper discusses form and function of lip-pointing with reference to a set of examples collected on video in Laos. There are various parameters with respect to which the conventional form of a lip-pointing gesture may vary. There is also a range of ways in which lip-pointing gestures can be coordinated with other kinds of deictic gesture such as various forms of hand pointing. The attested coordinating/sequencing possibilities can be related to specific functional properties of lip-pointing among Lao speakers, particularly in the context of other forms of deictic gesture, which have different functional properties. It is argued that the ‘vector’ of lip-pointing is in fact defined by gaze, and that the lip-pointing action itself (like other kinds of ‘pointing’ involving the head area) is a ‘gaze-switch’, i.e. it indicates that the speaker is now pointing out something with his or her gaze. Finally, I consider the position of lip-pointing in the broader deictic gesture system of Lao speakers, firstly as a ‘lower register’ form, and secondly as a form of deictic gesture which may contrast with forms of hand pointing.
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Gesture and speech rephrasings in conversation
Author(s): Alexis Tabenskypp.: 213–235 (23)More LessIn conversation it is common for participants to take up and repeat or rephrase in various ways what their partners say. Through the analysis of some extracts of conversations recorded on video, this paper shows that speakers can rephrase their partners’ gestures as well as their words. The focus is on the operations that the speakers (the “recipients” in the study) perform upon their partners’ speech and gesture, and in particular, on the positioning of the gesture relative to the verbal item in the new utterance. The study suggests that speakers can treat gesture and speech as a whole or as independent materials that can be separated or fused to form new language units.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 22 (2023)
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Volume 21 (2022)
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Volume 20 (2021)
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Volume 19 (2020)
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Volume 18 (2019)
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Volume 17 (2018)
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Volume 16 (2017)
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Volume 15 (2016)
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Volume 14 (2014)
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Volume 13 (2013)
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Volume 12 (2012)
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Volume 11 (2011)
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Volume 10 (2010)
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Volume 9 (2009)
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Volume 8 (2008)
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Volume 7 (2007)
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Volume 6 (2006)
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Volume 5 (2005)
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Volume 4 (2004)
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Volume 3 (2003)
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Volume 2 (2002)
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Volume 1 (2001)
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Home position
Author(s): Harvey Sacks and Emanuel A. Schegloff
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Depicting by gesture
Author(s): Jürgen Streeck
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Some uses of the head shake
Author(s): Adam Kendon
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