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The Semantics of Dynamic Space in French: Descriptive, experimental and formal studies on motion expression
Edited by Michel Aurnague and Dejan Stosic
[Human Cognitive Processing 66] 2019
► pp. 290–319

Structure of French expression of motion

Gesture-speech relation, between-language comparison and developmental perspective

| CLLE, Université de Toulouse, CNRS & UT2J, France
| CLLE, Université de Toulouse, CNRS & UT2J, France

This chapter contributes to the present discussion about the expression of motion in French by presenting a psycholinguistic study that focuses on how information about motion is structured not only in speech but also in co-speech gesture. Interested in developmental and cross-linguistic perspectives, we included adults as well as 5- and 10-year-old children and compared French with a typologically different and less commonly studied language – Czech. Using data from narrations of short video clips featuring various motion events, we found that, in French, gestural expression of motion is organized more similarly to verbal expression of motion than in Czech. We also observed an age-related increasing tendency to include more information about motion into fewer clauses and gestural strokes.

Keywords: motion, gesture, speech, French, Czech, development
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Gesture-speech relation
    • 2.1Gesture, language, and speech
    • 2.2Gesturing, speaking, and thinking
    • 2.3Impact of language and age
  • 3.Verbal and gestural expression of motion
    • 3.1Speaking about motion in different languages
    • 3.2Interest of gesture in motion research
    • 3.3Gesturing about motion in different languages
    • 3.4Gesturing about motion in children
  • 4.The present study
    • 4.1Content and structure of expression of motion in French and Czech
    • 4.2Design and hypotheses
    • 4.3Participants, procedure, and materials
    • 4.4Coding
      • 4.4.1Coding of speech
      • 4.4.2Coding of gesture
      • 4.4.3Coding of gesture-speech relation
    • 4.5Results
      • 4.5.1Results for speech
      • 4.5.2Results for gesture
      • 4.5.3Results for gesture-speech relation
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Discussion of speech results
      • 5.1.1Impact of language type
      • 5.1.2Impact of age
    • 5.2Discussion of gesture results
      • 5.2.1Impact of language type
      • 5.2.2Impact of age
    • 5.3Discussion of gesture-speech results
      • 5.3.1Impact of language type
      • 5.3.2Impact of age
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.66.08fib
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