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- Volume 16, Issue, 2017
Gesture - Volume 16, Issue 3, 2017
Volume 16, Issue 3, 2017
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Depicting and describing meanings with iconic signs in Norwegian Sign Language
Author(s): Lindsay Ferrara and Rolf Piene Halvorsenpp.: 371–395 (25)More LessThere is growing momentum towards a theory of languaging that acknowledges the diverse semiotic repertoires people use with each other. This paper contributes to this goal by providing further evidence from signed language discourse. In particular, we examine iconic signs from Norwegian Sign Language, which can be interpreted as both “regular” lexical signs and token depictions. This dual potential is manipulated by signers in context. We analyze these signs as descriptions and depictions, two different modes of representation. Then we compare these signs to some of the description and depiction that occurs in spoken language discourse. In this way we aim to present some of the advantages of using description and depiction in analyses of communication and interaction. By doing this, we also forge links between the languaging of speakers and the languaging of signers.
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Time on hands
Author(s): Heng Lipp.: 396–415 (20)More LessThe present study investigates deliberate and spontaneous temporal gestures in Mandarin speakers. The results of our analysis show that when asked to gesture about past and future events deliberately (Study 1), Mandarin speakers tend to mimic space-time mappings in their spoken metaphors or graphic conventions for time in Chinese culture, including sagittal mappings (front/past, back/future), vertical mappings (up/past, down/future), and lateral mappings (left/past, right/future). However, in their spontaneous co-speech gestures about time (Study 2), more congruent gestures were produced on the lateral axis than on the vertical axis. This suggests that although Mandarin speakers could think about time vertically, they still showed a horizontal bias in their conceptions of time. Speakers were also more likely to gesture according to future-in-front mappings despite more past-in-front mappings found in spoken Chinese, suggesting a dissociation of temporal language and temporal thought. These results demonstrate that gesture is useful for revealing the spatial conceptualization of time.
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Effects of gesture restriction on quality of narrative production
Author(s): Theodore Jenkins, Marie Coppola and Carl Coelhopp.: 416–431 (16)More LessHand gestures have been found to provide both semantic information and cognitive facilitative effects in language tasks. These benefits, however, have typically been linked to micro-levels of word and sentence production, and little attention has been paid to the macro-levels of narrative production and organization. In this study, we examined the length, content, syntactic complexity, and organization of narratives of ten typically developing adults under two conditions: (i) Free Gesture, in which participants were allowed to gesture freely while retelling a story, and (ii) Restricted Gesture, where the participants were prevented from moving their hands freely. Results indicated that although narrative length and content did not vary significantly between conditions, narratives produced in the Free Gesture condition were significantly more grammatically complex and better organized than those produced in the Restricted Gesture condition. The findings are discussed with respect to the potential facilitative cognitive effects of gesture for discourse planning.
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Interactional functions of lip funneling gestures
Author(s): Elena Mihaspp.: 432–479 (48)More LessBased on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in lowland Peru, this study examines interactional functions of Northern Kampa (Arawak) lip funneling gestures. The study has shown that lip funnels have two functions, spatial deictic and upgrading. Spatial deictic lip funnels orient the addressee to a referential target in acts of direct and deferred ostension and abstract pointing; they are accompanied with aligned gaze and coupled with a variety of lexical items (although they need not be). Spatial deictic lip funnels are intense, sometimes held for the duration of the entire utterance. The second function of lip funnels is to amplify the speaker’s claim to epistemic authority in upgraded responses. In the upgrading function, lip funnels are paired with a limited range of grammatical constructions (negative-interrogative, polar focus and exhaustive focus); the gesturer’s gaze is directed at the recipient, or eyes are shut. Nasalization of vowels is in complementary distribution with eye shutting. ‘Upgrading’ lip funnels are transitory facial actions, normally lasting a split second.
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)
Most Read This Month

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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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