Week 8 Flashcards
Gesture Definition
Actions of Body that have clearly Non-Accidental expressiveness - INC facial expressions, EXCLUDING speech
CAN be COMMUNICATIVE
- not all: eg basic physical respose
Gesture Continuum
David McNiel invented framework for gesture continuum based on Adam Kendon work
- identifies diff types of gesture by diff properties in CONTINUUM (types fade one into another)
GLPEPS:
- GESTICULATION
- LANGUAGE SLOTTED GESTURES
- PANTOMIME
- EMBLEMS. POINTS
- SIGN LANGUAGE
runs less compositional/extensive/conventional –> more composional/extensive/conventional
Gesture Classification
types classified according to
- ASSOC. w SPEECH PRODUCTION
- RELO TO LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE IN SPEECH
- CONVENTIONALITY
- COMPOSITIONALITY (comb. to express meaning)
- SYNTACTICITY (comb. in principled ways)
- EXTENSIVENESS
GESTICULATION
Idiosyncratic spontaneous actions that are synchronous with, and co-expressive with, speech
- accompanies speech
- less conventionality
- Little compositionality, non synctactic
- non exetnsive
Related to info structure
- rhythm, beat, pausing, managing attention
FUNCTIONS:
“co-semantic” = clarify/support speech content
a. - ICONIC eg. Hand(s) moves down when talking about ‘falling’
b.- METAPHORICAL eg. resepmbles object/action as metaphor for abstract
METAPHORICAL GESTURE
- Culture dependent.
1. time
= past/behind. future/front
2. Degree/Quantity
= more/up. less/down
3. Relationships btwn objects/ppl
= movement/direction in relation 2 speaker
LANGUAGE SLOTTED GESTURES
Can be INCORPORATED in structure of ling. expression
- stands in place of spoken/written expression
- interpretably only from spoken/written context
- I think he’s a bit [gesture].
- Just put it [gesture].
- And she’s so [gesture].
PANTOMIME
Mostly iconic rep of objects or actions (some indexical - eg points)
- Not necessarily accompany speech
- accomp. some para-linguistic vocalisaitons
- MEANINGFUL SEQUENCES (gesticulations do not)
POINTS
Diectic/indexical gesture
- point to specific physical object/location
- gen. conventional - range of options
- Independent of speech often
- can be integrated into ling structure (put it ___)
- Non-compositional
- Small set
EMBLEMS
CONVENTIONAL, not necessarily iconic
- ride gestures, come here - y/n head gestures
Conventionality = agreement on form meaning in partic. culture/social group
- Independent of speech often
- can be integrated into ling structure (put it ___)
- Non-compositional
- typically Small set
SIGN LANGUAGES
Sign languages share the defining properties of language vs other types of communication.
The communicative use of movement of the body or body parts, including facial expression, with
- highly conventionalised gestures
- compositional
- syntactic: structural principles for the extensive set
- LARGE SET: infinite expressive range.
- independent of speech production
Sign languages of the world
AUSLAN, BSL, ASL:
NOT signed versions of eng, chinese etc.
- distinct system of grammar/ set of lexical items do not necessarily correspond to spoken lang
Signers often become literate in co-habiting spoken lang.
LANGUAGE + DIALECT DISTINCTIONS IN SIGN LANG.
Auslan heavily influenced by BSL - similar. Dialects of same lang
Auslan not highly mutually intelligible w ASL. Different languages
Structure of Sign Languages
Basic structural principles of spoken languages.
- phonology: signs component actions
- morphology: meaningful parts smaller than whole sign
- syntax: signs comb. in phrases/sentences
- lexicon: set of sign forms n meanings
Sign Lexicon
Many signs have ICONIC ASPECTS but the majority are substantially SYMBOLIC
- ARBITRARY relo between form and meaning
Each sign not necessarily correspond 1-1 with word in co-habit spoken lang. Most different meanings
EG Zeal = eagerness, anticipation, enthusiasm, yummy, lets go, good, etc
Most Auslan bilingual - literate in English
ENGLISH WORDS CAN BE INCORPORATED W FINGERSPELLING - code mixing
Sign Phonology
‘word’ consists of components
- hand shape
- location (primary + secondary)
- Orientation
- movement
- Expression
