{"title":"The development of speech and gesture in Sesotho narratives","authors":"Heather Brookes, Dorothy Agyepong, Michelle White, Sefela Yalala","doi":"10.1075/gest.21006.bro","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.21006.bro","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Studies show that speech and gesture develop together with age, and the nature of gestures changes with increasing\u0000 cognitive and discursive abilities. While there are common developmental trends, cultural differences may also impact development.\u0000 We examined gesture development in narratives of Sesotho speaking children aged 5 to 6 years (n = 12), 9 to 10\u0000 years (n = 12) and adults (n = 12), who watched a wordless cartoon and narrated the story back\u0000 to an interlocutor. Our results show that narrative ability develops with age. Speech and gesture become more complex.\u0000 Representational and pragmatic gestures increase, but the proportion of these gesture types changes. Gestures become semiotically\u0000 more complex and integrated with spoken discourse. Narrative development in Sesotho speakers shows similar developmental trends to\u0000 those found in other studies. However, cultural factors influence some aspects with Sesotho speakers exhibiting similar narrative\u0000 patterns in spoken and gestural behaviour to speakers of isiZulu, a closely related language and cultural group.","PeriodicalId":35125,"journal":{"name":"Gesture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141343801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
GesturePub Date : 2024-03-19DOI: 10.1075/gest.22022.dom
Kailie Dombrausky, M. L. Jensvold, Heidi L. Shaw, J. Q. Davis
{"title":"Chimpanzees coordinate interrogative markers to ask questions","authors":"Kailie Dombrausky, M. L. Jensvold, Heidi L. Shaw, J. Q. Davis","doi":"10.1075/gest.22022.dom","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.22022.dom","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Questions serve to initiate and continue conversation as well as to gain information and introduce new topics. In\u0000 signed languages a question can be signaled by modifying the content of an utterance or by coordinating the use of nonmanual\u0000 markers (e.g., the questioning look) and manual modulation (e.g., holding the sign for an extended duration). Cross-fostered\u0000 chimpanzees, who use signs of American Sign Language (ASL), have demonstrated behaviors that appear in human conversation,\u0000 including question-answer exchanges. The current study describes the production of questions by signing chimpanzees in a\u0000 conversational context and offers a methodology for quantifying the relationship between nonmanual markers and manual modulation\u0000 involved in interrogative utterances.","PeriodicalId":35125,"journal":{"name":"Gesture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140229798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
GesturePub Date : 2024-03-04DOI: 10.1075/gest.23001.nic
Elena Nicoladis, Emma Hill
{"title":"Do gestures reflect children’s lexical retrieval difficulties?","authors":"Elena Nicoladis, Emma Hill","doi":"10.1075/gest.23001.nic","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.23001.nic","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 According to the Lexical Retrieval Hypothesis, one important function of representational gestures is to help\u0000 speakers retrieve words for production. In this study, we test whether gestures help preschoolers access words for production. We\u0000 tested two predictions generated from the LRH. First, since bilinguals often have greater difficulties with lexical access than\u0000 monolinguals, we predicted that bilinguals will gesture more than monolinguals. Second, since low-frequency words are harder to\u0000 access than high frequency words, we predicted that the more low-frequency words children used, the more they would gesture. Using\u0000 children’s (aged 4 to 6 years) data from a storytelling task, we found no difference in gesture use between bilinguals and\u0000 monolinguals. We did, however, find that the use of low-frequency words was a positive predictor of gesture use. While this result\u0000 could support the LRH, an exploration of some examples of gesture production raises some doubts about that conclusion.","PeriodicalId":35125,"journal":{"name":"Gesture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140079716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
GesturePub Date : 2024-02-09DOI: 10.1075/gest.23019.sta
B. Stark, Grace Oeding
{"title":"Demographic, neuropsychological, and speech variables that impact iconic and supplementary-to-speech gesturing in\u0000 aphasia","authors":"B. Stark, Grace Oeding","doi":"10.1075/gest.23019.sta","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.23019.sta","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We model the role of demographic, neuropsychological and speech variables in characterizing iconic gesture use in\u0000 speakers with aphasia, especially gestures that supplement speech and are essential for understanding the spoken message. Using\u0000 backward regression modelling with cross validation in 37 speakers with aphasia, literature-derived demographic (e.g., age),\u0000 neuropsychological (e.g., aphasia and anomia severity), and speech (e.g., speaking duration) variables were used to predict\u0000 frequency and rate (per minute) of iconic, supplementary, and essential gesturing. We identified that nearly 60% of iconic\u0000 gestures produced by speakers were supplementary to speech with 38% being essential for understanding the speech. Generally, those\u0000 with more severe aphasia, anomia, and with nonfluent aphasia tended to produce fewer tokens and a slower rate of speech, and these\u0000 were the speakers who produced more and a higher rate of supplementary and essential gestures. These findings underline the\u0000 importance of iconic gestures to improve communication.","PeriodicalId":35125,"journal":{"name":"Gesture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139789192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}