11. Verbal and gestural expression of motion in French and Czech

Iconicity in gesture

“…Applying the same logic, we wondered what would happen when we "force" Czech speakers to defocus from Manner while expression of the Manner of Motion is almost obligatory in their language. As said previously, we already know how Czech speakers describe and gesture about Motion events when Manner of Motion is a relevant piece of information (Fibigerova and Guidetti 2018;Fibigerova, Guidetti and Šulová 2012). But what will happen when Manner is not (as) relevant anymore?…”

“…Some studies conclude that gesture related to the expression of Motion is language specific arguing that speakers of satellite-framed languages include Path and Manner in a single clause and also in a single gesture, while speakers of verb-framed languages separate Path and Manner into two different clauses and also into two different gestures (Özyürek et al 2005, 2008). Other studies report the opposite showing that, in both language types, speakers prefer to gesture about Path only and that gesturing about both Path and Manner is not more widespread in satellite-framed languages than in verb-framed languages (Fibigerova and Guidetti 2018;Fibigerova, Guidetti and Šulová 2012;Hickmann, Hendrix and Gullberg 2011).…”

“…For instance, when French speakers need to express Manner, they sometimes do so gesturally rather than verbally which results in a combination of a Path verb with a Manner gesture (Gullberg, Hendrix and Hickmann 2008). On the other hand, while Czech speakers tend to indicate both Path and Manner in speech, they prefer to gesture about Path only (Fibigerova and Guidetti 2018;Fibigerova, Guidetti and Šulová 2012). McNeill and Duncan (2000) hypothesize that such a behaviour is a way of downplaying the omnipresence of spoken Manner in highly Manner-oriented languages such as Czech or Russian.…”

Recent advances in the study of motion in French

“…Previous work on this issue indicated that speakers of typologically distinct languages such as French, English and Czech displayed similar gestural patterns, mainly resorting to only-path gestures (e.g. Fibigerova et al 2012). Fibigerova and Guidetti's chapter tries to go one step further in the comparison of motion descriptions in French (verb-framed) and Czech (satellite-framed), examining carefully the structure of both verbal production and co-verbal gesture: how many clauses and gestures are used by speakers for a given motion event/stimulus (number variable)?…”

Hizkuntz erlatibitatea espazio-markagailuen argitan: azken hogei urteetako ikerketen zenbait aitzinamendu

“…Ikerketa ardatz horren adibide dira fran tseshiz tu nen datuak beste zenbait hizkuntzetako emaitzekin (grekoa, ingelesa, txekiera…) alderatzen dituzten esperimentuak (adib. : Fibigerova et al 2012;Soroli 2012).…”