Gestural reference to space by speakers of typologically different languages
Keiko Yoshioka
Keywords: gesture, cross-linguistic variation, structural properties of language, spatial reference
This study examines the extent to which the language specific structural properties possibly
interact not only with how speakers select and organize information for discourse production but
also with the use of gestures that accompany speech.
A line of research has suggested that properties of language may affect gesture (Brown,
2007; Kita & Özyürek, 2003; McNeill & Duncan; Özyürek et al. 2005, etc.). Most of the
findings concern cross-linguistic variation in description of motion in event construal. The
present study builds on the previous findings with a slightly different focus: reference to space.
Cross-linguistic analyses of narrative as well as descriptive discourse have shown how people
talk about space may reflect cross-linguistic variation (e.g., Carroll, 1997; Levinson, 2003;
Slobin, 1997, etc.). Work by Slobin and his associates further shows that cross-linguistic
variation may reflect typologically driven preference. Slobin argues that when narrating events,
speakers attend to the specific aspects of an event which can be easily mapped onto the
linguistic forms that are readily available in the language, and over time, this becomes a habitual
pattern of allocation of attention during speaking which eventually leads to a preferred rhetorical
style (i.e. thinking-for-speaking) (1997). Underpinned by Talmy’s (2000) typological dichotomy
of ‘satellite-framed’ languages (English, Dutch, Chinese, etc.) and ‘verb-framed’ languages
(Romance, Japanese and Turkish, etc.), Slobin’s empirical work reveals the effect of typological
differences in lexicalization patterns on how speakers express various aspects of motion events
in speech.
Of interest to the present study is the finding by Slobin that due to the availability of
various satellites (i.e. verb particles), speakers of ‘satellite-framed’ languages tend to elaborate
path in description of motion events (e.g., ‘the boy threw the boy off the cliff into the water’). In
contrast, speakers of ‘verb-framed’ languages prefer to allocate their attention to scene-setting
and leave path to be inferred (e.g., ‘There is a cliff. And he fell’). Given that speakers can
theoretically allocate their attention to the spoken as well as the manual mode at the same time,
the question is whether cross-linguistic variation in structural properties of languages affects the
production of gesture.
The types of gesture investigated in the present study are representational gestures (i.e.
deictic and iconic gestures according to the classification by McNeill (1992)). Analyses of
gestures were conducted in terms of frequency and form. The data consist of story-retellings by
15 Dutch (‘satellite-framed’ language) and 15 Japanese (‘verb-framed’ language) native
speakers. The results show that the two groups of speakers differ in how their gestures depict
spatial elements, and how frequently they occur. Given that cross-linguistic variation found in
the data cannot be accounted for by physical constraints or cultural factors, the results seem to
suggest that typologically (or grammatically) driven tendencies to allocate attention affect the
way speakers refer to spatial information in both gesture and speech.
References
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