Gestures Specialized for Dialogue

Abstract

A small group of hand gestures made during conversation (interactive gestures) seem to function solely to assist the process of dialogue rather than to convey topical information. The rate of interactive gestures was significantly higher when 27 dyads talked in dialogue than in sequential monologues, whereas the rate of other (topical) gestures did not change; this difference supports the theory that interactive gestures are uniquely affected by the requirements of dialogue. A second, microanalytic study tested hypotheses about the specific functions of interactive gestures by examining the responses of the person to whom the gesture was addressed. Predictions were correct for 78 of 88 gestures sampled randomly from a large database. These results support the conclusion that interactive gestures are an important means by which speakers can include their addressees in the conversation. Moreover, these gestures demonstrate the importance of social (dialogic) processes in language use.

Preliminary Prosodic and Gestural Characteristics of Instructing Acts in Polish Task-Oriented Dialogues

“…It seems that certain gestures are typical of dialogue interaction and rarely occur in other communicational contexts. Bavelas et al [11] distinguished between "interactional gestures" and "topic gestures." The latter refer directly to the addressee and to the process of dialogue.…”

“…The proportions of gesture categories may be influenced by the nature of the task, although it is obviously difficult to find a "neutral" form of communication which could be regarded as a reference in this respect. However, there is no doubt that "topical" gestures (e.g., [11]) were predominant in the realisations of IDAs. The gestural structure of IDAs was studied in terms of accompanying gesture sequences.…”

“…The parallelism should be understood not as producing two parallel syntactic structures but as the making syntactic slots of a single structure available for both speech and gesture (cf. also [10,11,33]). This, in turn, remains in accordance with McNeill's [30,34] hypothesis on the common source of audible and visible components of utterances.…”

On performing concepts during science lectures

“…Beats are gestures that are void of propositional or topical content, and yet lend a temporal or emphatic structure to communication. They function as interactive gestures, which serve to regulate the coordination of speaking turns, to seek or request a response, or to acknowledge understanding (Bavelas, Chovil, Coates, & Roe, 1995). These spontaneous gestures occur frequently throughout our database; by enacting them, the teacher underscores certain words.…”

A study in responsiveness in spoken dialog

“…You may achieve a sense of being 'in synch' with the other person, of having 'connected', or of being 'on the same wavelength'. These benefits of human-to-human dialog are, to a large extent, obtained orthogonally to the "official business" (Clark, 1996) (Bavelas et al 1995, Ward and Kuroda 1999, Ward 2000 divisive content, such as a difference of opinion, the same feelings of satisfaction can arise. Thus the process of dialog itself, not just the task served, can be valuable.…”