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Why iconic gestures aren’t very iconic
Elena Nicoladis
Gestures and thought
• Gestures are often used in conjunction with speech– Have complementary meaning– Timed with speech
• Thoughts are conveyed by gesture + speech (McNeill, 1996)
Why do people gesture?
• To help lexical retrieval– Evidence: Tip-of-the-Tongue experiment with
hands free or not free
• To help listeners understand– Evidence: Gestures are produced at low
frequency word combinations
• Note that in conversations, both could be true
This talk
• How do different kinds of gestures relate to speech?– Gesture development– Do gestures compensate for missing or weak
speech?
• Study of French-English bilingual children
Gesture development: prelinguistic gestures
• Conventional gestures– Appear around 9 mos.
• Symbolic gestures– Appear before words; disappear when words
acquired
• Deictic or pointing gestures– Appear around 9-12 mos.– Usually with vocalizations
Prelinguistic gestures may all be conventional
• Symbolic gestures probably are learned from adults
• Deictic gestures vary from culture to culture– Ghanian mouth point
Gesture development: with-language gestures
• Iconic gestures: resemble referent– Emerge around age of 2 years– Correlated with proficiency in French-English
bilingual preschoolers between 2;0 and 3;6
• Beat gestures: keep time– Rarely seen in the preschool years
Do gestures compensate for weak or absent speech?
• Deaf people (home signs)
• Bilinguals (one language usually weaker)
• Elderly
• Aphasics
Iconic gestures rarely compensate
• Deaf children with oral training use words rather than gestures
• Elderly people use fewer iconic gestures than younger people
• Intermediate bilinguals use fewer iconic gestures in their L2 than their L1
• Advanced bilinguals use equal rates of iconic gestures in their L1 and L2
Other gestures can compensate
• First home signs are mostly conventional gestures and deictic gestures
• Broca’s aphasics can still use conventional and deictic gestures
• Both intermediate and advanced bilinguals use more deictics in their L2 than their L1
Different gestures, different relationship to speech
• Prelinguistic gestures can compensate for weak or absent speech
• “With-language” gestures do not compensate for weak or absent speech– Home signs can be iconic but only after a
communicative system has been established
This study
• How are different kinds of gestures related to speech?
• Are iconic gestures more closely linked to speech than other kinds of gestures?
This study: Research Questions
• Does the rate of gestures relate to proficiency?
• Do children create longer utterances with iconic gestures
• Do children use “speechless” gestures to compensate for weak proficiency?
• Are iconic gestures used in cases of word-finding difficulty?
This study: Participants
• Eight French-English bilingual children– Between 3;6 and 4;11– Average age: 4;3– 4 French-dominant children and 4 English-
dominant children
• Videotaped in two free-play sessions:– French session– English session
Results: Gesture by dominance
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
English dominant French dominant
% English
French
Conventional gestures
Results: Gesture by dominance
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
English dominant French dominant
%English
French
Deictics
Results: Gesture by dominance
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
English dominant French dominant
%English
French
Iconics
Summary: Gesture by dominance
• These children used more iconic gestures in their dominant language
• They did not use more conventional and deictic gestures in their dominant language
Results: Longer utterances?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
No gesture with Emblems with Deictics with Iconics
Average number of words
EnglishFrench
Results: “speechless” gestures
0
5
10
15
20
25
Englishdominant
Frenchdominant
Englishdominant
Frenchdominant
Englishdominant
Frenchdominant
Emblems Deictics Iconics
#
English sessionFrench session
Results: Word finding difficulties
• Jason (3;7) “It goes like this.”– Gesture meaning: path of movement from a vehicle
pictured in a book
– 1/22 iconic gestures
• Aidan (4;11): “So it can go like this and like this.”– Gesture meaning: looping paths that the train tracks
they are building should do
– 6/9 iconic gestures
Summary of results #1
• Conventional and deictic gestures– Are not used more often with dominant
language– Do not lead to longer sentences– Are used more often without speech when
trying to communicate in weaker language
Summary of results #2
• Iconic gestures– Are used more often with dominant language– Produced with longer sentences– Are not used more often without speech when
trying to communicate in weaker language– Are occasionally used in cases of word-finding
difficulty, possibly increasing with age
Iconic gestures aren’t very iconic
• They can only be produced when someone knows a language well
• This holds true even for bilinguals who CAN produce iconics in their other language
• At least one function of iconics may be to “hold down” some concepts while thinking of others (hence, longer utterances possible)
Iconic gestures aren’t very iconic
• We also have some evidence that the interpretation of iconic gestures is highly dependent on what someone says
A troubling question…
• Why is the rate of iconic production different by language?– Italians vs. English speakers– Spanish vs. English speakers– Chinese speakers
Some possible answers
• English speakers think less complex thoughts than Italian and Spanish speakers
• The fact that iconic gestures are produced is due to cognitive development. The rate of cognitive gestures is due to cultural variables.
• Other ideas??
