What’s in a mime? : An exploratory analysis of predictors of communicative success of pantomime
(2022) In Interaction Studies 23(2). p.289-321- Abstract
Several lines of research within developmental psychology, experimental semiotics and language origins studies have recently converged in their interest in pantomime as a system of bodily communication distinct from both language (spoken or signed) and nonlinguistic gesticulation. These approaches underscore the effectiveness of pantomime, which despite lack of semiotic conventions is capable of communicating complex meanings. However, very little research is available on the structural underpinnings of this effectiveness, that is, the specific properties of pantomime that determine its communicative success. To help fill in this gap, we conducted an exploratory rating study aimed at identifying those properties of pantomime that... (More)
Several lines of research within developmental psychology, experimental semiotics and language origins studies have recently converged in their interest in pantomime as a system of bodily communication distinct from both language (spoken or signed) and nonlinguistic gesticulation. These approaches underscore the effectiveness of pantomime, which despite lack of semiotic conventions is capable of communicating complex meanings. However, very little research is available on the structural underpinnings of this effectiveness, that is, the specific properties of pantomime that determine its communicative success. To help fill in this gap, we conducted an exploratory rating study aimed at identifying those properties of pantomime that facilitate its understanding. We analysed an existing corpus of 602 recordings of whole-body re-enactments of short transitive events, coding each of them for 6 properties, and found out that the presence of salient elements (conspicuous objects in a specific semantic space), image mapping (representing the physical orientation of the object), and gender markers (distinguishing between the represented characters) increased the guessability of pantomimes.
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- author
- Sibierska, Marta LU ; Boruta-Żywiczyńska, Monika ; Żywiczyński, Przemysław and Wacewicz, Sławomir
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- bodily mimesis, communicative success, non-verbal communication, pantomime
- in
- Interaction Studies
- volume
- 23
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 33 pages
- publisher
- John Benjamins Publishing Company
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85153323961
- ISSN
- 1572-0373
- DOI
- 10.1075/is.22002.sib
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 0d9bc1d1-e527-435b-83aa-dbe433e4bca3
- date added to LUP
- 2023-07-21 11:39:55
- date last changed
- 2023-11-22 20:27:32
@article{0d9bc1d1-e527-435b-83aa-dbe433e4bca3,
abstract = {{<p>Several lines of research within developmental psychology, experimental semiotics and language origins studies have recently converged in their interest in pantomime as a system of bodily communication distinct from both language (spoken or signed) and nonlinguistic gesticulation. These approaches underscore the effectiveness of pantomime, which despite lack of semiotic conventions is capable of communicating complex meanings. However, very little research is available on the structural underpinnings of this effectiveness, that is, the specific properties of pantomime that determine its communicative success. To help fill in this gap, we conducted an exploratory rating study aimed at identifying those properties of pantomime that facilitate its understanding. We analysed an existing corpus of 602 recordings of whole-body re-enactments of short transitive events, coding each of them for 6 properties, and found out that the presence of salient elements (conspicuous objects in a specific semantic space), image mapping (representing the physical orientation of the object), and gender markers (distinguishing between the represented characters) increased the guessability of pantomimes.</p>}},
author = {{Sibierska, Marta and Boruta-Żywiczyńska, Monika and Żywiczyński, Przemysław and Wacewicz, Sławomir}},
issn = {{1572-0373}},
keywords = {{bodily mimesis; communicative success; non-verbal communication; pantomime}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{289--321}},
publisher = {{John Benjamins Publishing Company}},
series = {{Interaction Studies}},
title = {{What’s in a mime? : An exploratory analysis of predictors of communicative success of pantomime}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/is.22002.sib}},
doi = {{10.1075/is.22002.sib}},
volume = {{23}},
year = {{2022}},
}