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Perspectives on Pantomime
Edited by Przemysław Żywiczyński, Johan Blomberg and Monika Boruta-Żywiczyńska
[Advances in Interaction Studies 12] 2024
► pp. 188–216

Chapter 8
Symbolic distancing in three-year-old children’s object-use pantomime

| University of Alberta
| University of Alberta
| University of Alberta
Children’s early pantomime of how to use objects is thought to demonstrate “symbolic distancing,” ostensibly providing an opportunity to observe the development of symbolic reference between the ages of three- and six-years. This chapter argues, in contrast, that the modes of representation used by three-year-olds may be better explained by item, task, and communicative factors revealing children’s functional knowledge of objects and social knowledge of communicative conventions rather than symbolic development. Detailed analysis of the children’s manual mode of representation in conjunction with their speech challenges assumptions about which forms are viewed as more or less pantomimic. Interpretation of iconicity may be a function of human adult convention; we discuss the implications for our understanding of the role of iconic gestures depicting object-use in communicative situations.
Keywords: symbolic distancing, pantomime, representational gesture, iconicity, modes of representation
Article outline
  • Symbolic distancing in three-year-old children’s pantomime
  • “Pantomiming” how to use an object
  • Is this pantomime?
  • Symbol development and symbolic distancing
  • Symbolic status of pantomime forms
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Procedure
      • Sammy’s birthday task
    • Coding
  • Results
    • Gesture type by child, cue and speech
    • Gesture type by object
  • Discussion
  • Pantomime? The effects of cue and speech
  • Mode of representation and primary vs. secondary iconicity
  • Alternatives to symbolic distancing
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ais.12.08mar
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Cited by (2)

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Arbib, Michael
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Mineiro, Ana & Mara Moita
2024. Chapter 7. The pantomime roots of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language. In Perspectives on Pantomime [Advances in Interaction Studies, 12], ► pp. 159 ff. DOI logo

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