Using depiction for efficient communication in LIS (Italian Sign Language)

Abstract

Meanings communicated with depictions constitute an integral part of how speakers and signers actually use language (Clark, 2016). Recent studies have argued that, in sign languages, depicting strategy like constructed action (CA), in which a signer enacts the referent, is used for referential purposes in narratives. Here, we tested the referential function of CA in a more controlled experimental setting and outside narrative context. Given the iconic properties of CA we hypothesized that this strategy could be used for efficient information transmission. Thus, we asked if use of CA increased with the increase in the information required to be communicated. Twenty-three deaf signers of LIS described unconnected images, which varied in the amount of information represented, to another player in a director–matcher game. Results revealed that participants used CA to communicate core information about the images and also increased the use of CA as images became informatively denser. The findings show that iconic features of CA can be used for referential function in addition to its depictive function outside narrative context and to achieve communicative efficiency.

Signed Languages: A Triangular Semiotic Dimension

“…Recently, the use of such iconic simultaneous constructions has been shown to increase with the increase of informative demands indicating that simultaneity can be used to achieve communicative efficiency by Slonimska et al (2020Slonimska et al ( , 2021. Simultaneity has profound consequences on the whole linguistic structure of signed languages.…”

Iconicity as Multimodal, Polysemiotic, and Plurifunctional

“…Iconicity helps us figure out what we want to say and how we can say it ( McNeill, 1985 ; Goldin-Meadow, 2003 ). It enables us to be creative and improvise meaning, and to communicate expressively and efficiently (e.g., Clark, 1996 ; Kendon, 2004 ; Fusellier-Souza, 2006 ; Hodge and Ferrara, 2014 ; Slonimska et al, 2021 ). Iconicity is also important for the negotiation and co-regulation of joint actions within social participation frameworks, such as by aligning our manual actions with those of our interactant ( Goodwin, 1986 ; Rasenberg et al, 2020 ).…”

“…This has implications for how we can expand discussions of iconicity across the language and communication sciences. For example, researchers have highlighted the important role of depicting for efficient referential communication between signers who share a signed language (e.g., Slonimska et al, 2021 ). Yet when we consider how iconicity manifests between people with sensorial asymmetries such as Pradip and the shopkeeper, it becomes apparent how much effort and labour is often involved in signalling through depicting.…”

Simultaneity as an Emergent Property of Efficient Communication in Language: A Comparison of Silent Gesture and Sign Language

“…1b). In these examples, representations in each articulator in constructed action are separate units of meaning which can be freely combined with others through diagrammatic iconicity, allowing for a unified interpretation of the event encoded (Slonimska et al, 2021). Importantly, considering that meaning elements of the event can be related to each other by means of diagrammatic iconicity in simultaneous constructions, they are not restricted to employing one linguistic strategy, that is, using only constructed action or only depicting construction.…”

“…Sign languages make use of modality‐specific ways to encode perceptually simultaneous events in a simultaneous manner by resorting to iconic means of representation (Cormier, Smith, & Sevcikova‐Sehyr, 2015; Cuxac, 1999, 2000; Napoli & Sutton‐Spence, 2010; Perniss, 2007; Quinto‐Pozos, 2007; Risler, 2007). Iconicity does not only refer to the resemblance between a single linguistic form and its meaning, that is, imagistic iconicity (Taub, 2001), but it also refers to the structural resemblance of the relationship between multiple meaning elements and the relationship between multiple elements of linguistic form, that is, diagrammatic iconicity (Perniss, 2007; Risler, 2007; Slonimska, Özyürek, & Capirci, 2021; Taub, 2001).…”