When speech stops, gesture stops : Evidence from crosslinguistic and developmental comparisons
(2018) In Frontiers in Psychology 9.- Abstract
- There is plenty of evidence that speech and gesture form a tightly integrated system, as reflected in parallelisms in language production, comprehension, and development (Kendon, 2004; McNeill, 1992). Yet, it is a common assumption that speakers use gestures to compensate for their expressive difficulties, a notion found in developmental studies of both first and second language acquisition, and in some theoretical proposals concerning the gesture-speech relationship. If gestures are compensatory, they should mainly occur in disfluent stretches of speech. However, the evidence is sparse and conflicting. This study tests the putative compensatory role of gestures by comparing the gestural behaviour in fluent vs. disfluent stretches of... (More)
- There is plenty of evidence that speech and gesture form a tightly integrated system, as reflected in parallelisms in language production, comprehension, and development (Kendon, 2004; McNeill, 1992). Yet, it is a common assumption that speakers use gestures to compensate for their expressive difficulties, a notion found in developmental studies of both first and second language acquisition, and in some theoretical proposals concerning the gesture-speech relationship. If gestures are compensatory, they should mainly occur in disfluent stretches of speech. However, the evidence is sparse and conflicting. This study tests the putative compensatory role of gestures by comparing the gestural behaviour in fluent vs. disfluent stretches of narratives by competent speakers in two languages (Dutch and Italian), and by language learners (children and adult L2 learners). The results reveal that (1) in all groups speakers overwhelmingly produce gestures during fluent speech and only rarely during disfluencies. However, L2 learners are significantly more likely to gesture in disfluency than the other groups; (2) in all groups any gestures performed during disfluencies tend to be suspended; (3) in all groups the rare gestures completed in disfluencies have both referential and pragmatic functions. Overall, the data strongly suggest that when speech stops, so does gesture. The findings constitute an important challenge to both gesture and language acquisition theories assuming a mainly (lexical) compensatory role for (referential) gestures. Instead, the results provide strong support for the notion that speech and gestures form an integrated system. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/12a02342-0a78-4f5b-8302-938c43f85cd6
- author
- Graziano, Maria LU and Gullberg, Marianne LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018-06-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- gesture, speech production, language development, second language acquision, crossmodal coordination, child language acquisition
- in
- Frontiers in Psychology
- volume
- 9
- article number
- 879
- pages
- 17 pages
- publisher
- Frontiers Media S. A.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85048119031
- ISSN
- 1664-1078
- DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00879
- project
- Embodied bilingualism (a Wallenberg Scholar project)
- Developmental perspectives on the relationship between gesture production and speech fluency
- Gesture production and speech fluency in child and adult language learners’ discourse
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 12a02342-0a78-4f5b-8302-938c43f85cd6
- date added to LUP
- 2017-12-31 23:12:18
- date last changed
- 2023-12-01 22:16:12
@article{12a02342-0a78-4f5b-8302-938c43f85cd6, abstract = {{There is plenty of evidence that speech and gesture form a tightly integrated system, as reflected in parallelisms in language production, comprehension, and development (Kendon, 2004; McNeill, 1992). Yet, it is a common assumption that speakers use gestures to compensate for their expressive difficulties, a notion found in developmental studies of both first and second language acquisition, and in some theoretical proposals concerning the gesture-speech relationship. If gestures are compensatory, they should mainly occur in disfluent stretches of speech. However, the evidence is sparse and conflicting. This study tests the putative compensatory role of gestures by comparing the gestural behaviour in fluent vs. disfluent stretches of narratives by competent speakers in two languages (Dutch and Italian), and by language learners (children and adult L2 learners). The results reveal that (1) in all groups speakers overwhelmingly produce gestures during fluent speech and only rarely during disfluencies. However, L2 learners are significantly more likely to gesture in disfluency than the other groups; (2) in all groups any gestures performed during disfluencies tend to be suspended; (3) in all groups the rare gestures completed in disfluencies have both referential and pragmatic functions. Overall, the data strongly suggest that when speech stops, so does gesture. The findings constitute an important challenge to both gesture and language acquisition theories assuming a mainly (lexical) compensatory role for (referential) gestures. Instead, the results provide strong support for the notion that speech and gestures form an integrated system.}}, author = {{Graziano, Maria and Gullberg, Marianne}}, issn = {{1664-1078}}, keywords = {{gesture; speech production; language development; second language acquision; crossmodal coordination; child language acquisition}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{06}}, publisher = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}}, series = {{Frontiers in Psychology}}, title = {{When speech stops, gesture stops : Evidence from crosslinguistic and developmental comparisons}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00879}}, doi = {{10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00879}}, volume = {{9}}, year = {{2018}}, }