Cross-linguistic gestures reflect typological universals: A subject-initial, verb-final bias in speakers of diverse languages

Abstract

In communicating events by gesture, participants create codes that recapitulate the patterns of word order in the world's vocal languages (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2008;Hall et al., 2010;Langus and Nespor, 2010;Gibson et al, 2013; and others). Participants most often convey simple transitive events using gestures in the order Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), the most common word order in human languages. When there is a possibility of confusion between subject and object, participants use the order Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). This overall pattern has been explained by positing an underlying cognitive preference for subject-initial, verb-final orders, with the verb-medial order SVO order emerging to facilitate robust communication in a noisy channel (Gibson et al., 2013). However, whether the subject-initial and verb-final biases are innate or the result of languages that the particpants already know has been unclear, because participants in previous studies all spoke either SVO or SOV languages, which could induce a subject-initial, verb-late bias. Furthermore, the exact manner in which known languages influence gestural orders has been unclear. In this paper we demonstrate that there is a subject-initial and verb-final gesturing bias cross-linguistically by comparing gestures of speakers of SVO languages English and Russian to those of speakers of VSO languages Irish and Tagalog. The findings show that subject-initial and verb-final order emerges even in speakers of verb-initial languages, and that interference from these languages takes the form of occasionally gesturing in VSO order, without an additional bias toward other orders. The results provides further support for the idea that improvised gesture is a window into the pressures shaping language formation, independently of the languages that participants already know.

Systematic mappings between semantic categories and types of iconic representations in the manual modality: A normed database of silent gesture

“…Here we were interested in describing the mapping strategies implemented to express concepts in the manual modality, whether systematic patterns were observed during the production of silent gestures, and whether certain couplings between types of representations and semantic domains were more transparent than others. We focused on silent gesture, given a growing body of evidence that these forms of manual communication show a remarkable degree of systematicity, with limited influence of participants' spoken language on the form of the gestures (Christensen et al, 2016;Futrell et al, 2015;Goldin-Meadow et al, 2008;Hall et al, 2013;van Nispen et al, 2017). The present norming study describes the silent gestures produced by a group of Dutch participants, their favored modes of representation, as well as a detailed notation of their structure.…”

Linear grammar as a possible stepping-stone in the evolution of language

“…Another kind of linear grammar-that is, a system that relies on the linear order of the semantic roles being expressed to form conceptual relations-surfaces when people are asked to express actions or situations in a nonlinguistic task, such as in gesture or act-out tasks (Futrell et al, 2015;GoldinMeadow, So, Özyürek, & Mylander, 2008;Hall, Mayberry, & Ferreira, 2013). Overall, there is a vast preference to gesture, or act out, the agent first (e.g., girl), and then the patient (e.g., boy).…”

From the world to word order: the link between conceptual structure and language

“…In silent gesture experiments, participants with no knowledge of a sign language must improvise a way to convey information using only their hands and no speech. This method has been popular in exploring biases underlying basic word order, showing that when participants use gestures to describe simple events (e.g., "Alex kicked the ball"), they often bypass the dominant order of their native language (Goldin-Meadow, So,Özyürek, & Mylander, 2008;Futrell et al, 2015), and take the semantic properties of the information to be conveyed into account (Gibson et al, 2013;Hall, Mayberry, & Ferreira, 2013;Schouwstra & de Swart, 2014;Schouwstra, Smith, & Kirby, 2016). Here we use this method to investigate biases in noun phrase order.…”