Gesture and the Dynamic Dimension of Language

Essays in honor of David McNeill

Editors

Susan D. Duncan | University of Chicago

Justine Cassell | Northwestern University

Elena T. Levy | University of Connecticut - Stamford

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027228413 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027292506 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

Each of the 21 chapters in this volume reflects a view of language as a dynamic phenomenon with emergent structure, and in each, gesture is approached as part of language, not an adjunct to it. In this, all of the authors have been influenced by David McNeill's methods for studying natural discourse and by his theory of the human capacity for language. The introductory chapter by Adam Kendon contextualizes McNeill’s research paradigm within a history of earlier gesture studies. Chapters in the first section, Language and Cognition, emphasize what McNeill refers to as the intrapersonal plane. Many of the chapters adduce evidence for McNeill's claim that gestures can serve as a window onto the speaker's mind. Chapters in the second section, Environmental Context and Sociality, emphasize the interpersonal plane and exemplify McNeill's focus on how moment-to-moment language use is determined by contextual factors. The final section of the volume, Atypical Minds and Bodies, concerns lessons to be learned from studies of aphasic patients, autistic children, and artificial humans.

[Gesture Studies, 1] 2007. vi, 328 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.1

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

1 Introduction: The Dynamic Dimension of Language

Elena T. Levy, Susan D. Duncan and Justine Cassell | pp. 1–11

2 On the Origins of Modern Gesture Studies

Adam Kendon | pp. 13–28

II. Language and Cognition

3 Gesture with Speech and Without it

Susan Goldin-Meadow | pp. 31–49

4 From Gestures to Signs in the Acquisition of Sign Language

Nini Hoiting and Dan I. Slobin | pp. 51–65

5 How does Spoken Language Shape Iconic Gestures?

Sotaro Kita and Aslı Özyürek | pp. 67–74

6 Forgetful or Strategic? The Mystery of the Systematic Avoidance of Reference in the Cartoon Story Narrative

Nobuhiro Furuyama and Kazuki Sekine | pp. 75–81

7 Metagesture: An Analysis of Theoretical Discourse about Multimodal Language

Fey Parrill | pp. 83–89

8 Potential Cognitive Universals: Evidence from Head Movements in Turkana

Evelyn McClave | pp. 91–98

9 Blending in Deception: Tracing Output Back to its Source

Amy Franklin | pp. 99–108

10 A Dynamic View of Metaphor, Gesture and Thought

Cornelia Müller | pp. 109–116

11 Second Language Acquisition from a McNeillian Perspective

Gale Stam | pp. 117–124

III. Environmental Context and Sociality

12 Face-to-face Dialogue as a Micro-social Context: The Example of Motor Mimicry

Janet Bavelas | pp. 127–146

13 Master Speakers, Master Gesturers: A String Quarter Master Class

John B. Haviland | pp. 147–172

14 Constructing Spatial Conceptualizations from Limited Input: Evidence from Norwegian Sign Language

Scott K. Liddell and Marit Vogt-Svendsen | pp. 173–194

15 Environmentally Coupled Gestures

Charles Goodwin | pp. 195–212

16 Indexing Locations in Gesture: Recalled Stimulus Image and Interspeaker Coordination as Factors Influencing Gesture Form

Irene Kimbara | pp. 213–220

17 The Role of Iconic Gesture in Semantic Communication and its Theoretical and Practical Implications

Geoffrey Beattie and Heather Shovelton | pp. 221–241

18 Intersubjectivity in Gestures: The Speaker's Perspective toward the Addressee

Mika Ishino | pp. 243–250

19 An Integrated Approach to the Study of Convention, Conflict, and Compliance in Interaction

Starkey Duncan | pp. 251–266

IV. Atypical Minds and Bodies

20 Discourse Focus, Gesture, and Disfluent Aphasia

Susan D. Duncan and Laura Pedelty | pp. 269–283

21 The Construction of a Temporally Coherent Narrative by an Autistic Adolescent: Co-contributions of Speech, Enactment and Gesture

Elena T. Levy | pp. 285–301

22 The Body in Communication: Lessons from the Near-Human

Justine Cassell | pp. 303–322

Index | pp. 323–328

“[...] anyone currently in the field of cognitive science or considering entering the field will find the book valuable. [...] For those of you who enjoy thinking about language and enjoy thinking about thinking, you may find this a pleasurable and enduring consequence of having read the book.”

Shelia Kennison and Seongwon Yun, in PsycCRITIQUES, Vol 53(19), 2008.

“I would recommend the book to students and other scholars who want to become acquainted with the research done on the relationship between gesture and language. [...] The book also raises big issues that are important for understanding grammar (syntax, pragmatics and semantics). It opens up new horizons for linguistic research by challenging and renegotiating many generally held assumptions about the nature of language.”

Pentti Haddington, University of Oulu, Finland, on Linguist List 19.1504 (2008)

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Miłkowski, Marcin & Przemysław Nowakowski

2021. Representational unification in cognitive science: Is embodied cognition a unifying perspective?. Synthese 199:S1 ► pp. 67 ff.

Mondada, Lorenza

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Poignant, Elisabeth Geiger & Cecilia Wadensjö

2020. To Re-present a Nobel Prize Winner. Interpreting a Public Literary Conversation. Multimodal Communication 9:1

Stam, Gale A.

2012. Second Language Acquisition and Gesture. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,

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[no author supplied]

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