Why iconic gestures arent very iconic Elena Nicoladis

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 (Mc. Neill, 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 L 2 than their L 1 • Advanced bilinguals use equal rates of iconic gestures in their L 1 and L 2

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 L 2 than their L 1

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 wordfinding 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 Englishdominant children • Videotaped in two free-play sessions: – French session – English session

Results: Gesture by dominance Conventional gestures

Results: Gesture by dominance Deictics

Results: Gesture by dominance 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?

Results: “speechless” gestures

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? ?