When speech is ambiguous, gesture steps in: Sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic principles in early childhood

So, Wing-Chee; Demir, Özlem; Goldin‐Meadow, Susan

doi:10.1017/s0142716409990221

Cited by 39 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Gesture conveys information using a different representational format than does speech and thus has the potential to enrich the information conveyed in speech. Our study adds to the small but growing literature showing that, at a certain point in development, gesture can play an important role in providing structure at the discourse level; for example, by highlighting information introduced to the listener for the first time (So, Demir, & Goldin-Meadow, 2010), by highlighting information not accessible to the listener (Demir, So, Özyürek, & Goldin-Meadow, 2012), or by setting up discourse referents in space that can be used for co-reference (So, Kita, & Goldin-Meadow, 2009). Future studies should explore how the role of gesture changes as children's discourse skills develop.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

A tale of two hands: children's early gesture use in narrative production predicts later narrative structure in speech

2014

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Speakers of all ages spontaneously gesture as they talk. These gestures predict children's milestones in vocabulary and sentence structure. We ask whether gesture serves a similar role in the development of narrative skill. Children were asked to retell a story conveyed in a wordless cartoon at age 5 and then again at 6, 7, and 8. Children's narrative structure in speech improved across these ages. At age 5, many of the children expressed a character's viewpoint in gesture, and these children were more likely to tell better-structured stories at the later ages than children who did not produce character-viewpoint gestures at age 5. In contrast, framing narratives from a character's perspective in speech at age 5 did not predict later narrative structure in speech. Gesture thus continues to act as a harbinger of change even as it assumes new roles in relation to discourse.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

A tale of two hands: children's early gesture use in narrative production predicts later narrative structure in speech

2014

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“…Concrete deictic gestures, which are driven by physically present referents that are perceptually accessible to both the speaker and listener, provide an ideal vehicle to meet this communicative goal. Thus, when speech does not lexically specify a referent, co-occurring concrete deictic gesture can step in and perform the task of specifying (see So, et al, 2010). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Do Speakers Use Gestures to Specify Who Does What to Whom? The Role of Language Proficiency and Type of Gestures in Narratives

Kita

Goldin‐Meadow

2013

J Psycholinguist Res

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Previous research has found that iconic gestures (i.e., gestures that depict the actions, motions or shapes of entities) identify referents that are also lexically specified in the co-occurring speech produced by proficient speakers. This study examines whether concrete deictic gestures (i.e., gestures that point to physical entities) bear a different kind of relation to speech, and whether this relation is influenced by the language proficiency of the speakers. Two groups of speakers who had different levels of English proficiency were asked to retell a story in English. Their speech and gestures were transcribed and coded. Our findings showed that proficient speakers produced concrete deictic gestures for referents that were not specified in speech, and iconic gestures for referents that were specified in speech, suggesting that these two types of gestures bear different kinds of semantic relations with speech. In contrast, less proficient speakers produced concrete deictic gestures and iconic gestures whether or not referents were lexically specified in speech. Thus, both type of gesture and proficiency of speaker need to be considered when accounting for how gesture and speech are used in a narrative context.

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“…Indeed, starting from 2 years of age, children have been found to use pointing gestures to disambiguate referents in the perceptual context (O’Neill & Topolovec, 2001). Similarly, So et al (2010) found that children are particularly likely to use gestures when their speech is underspecified. In this study, both English- and Chinese-speaking children, ages 4 to 5, used gesture to disambiguate their pronouns and supplement their omitted arguments, and did so more often when the referent was new to the discourse context.…”

Section: Gesture As a Referring Expressionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Previous studies have shown that speakers use iconic gestures, in addition to pointing gestures, to identify referents (So, Demir, & Goldin-Meadow, 2010; So, Kita, & Goldin-Meadow, 2009). …”

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confidence: 99%

Turkish- and English-speaking children display sensitivity to perceptual context in the referring expressions they produce in speech and gesture

Demir

Özyürek

et al. 2012

Language and Cognitive Processes

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Speakers choose a particular expression based on many factors, including availability of the referent in the perceptual context. We examined whether, when expressing referents, monolingual English- and Turkish-speaking children: (1) are sensitive to perceptual context, (2) express this sensitivity in language-specific ways, and (3) use co-speech gestures to specify referents that are underspecified. We also explored the mechanisms underlying children’s sensitivity to perceptual context. Children described short vignettes to an experimenter under two conditions: The characters in the vignettes were present in the perceptual context (perceptual context); the characters were absent (no perceptual context). Children routinely used nouns in the no perceptual context condition, but shifted to pronouns (English-speaking children) or omitted arguments (Turkish-speaking children) in the perceptual context condition. Turkish-speaking children used underspecified referents more frequently than English-speaking children in the perceptual context condition; however, they compensated for the difference by using gesture to specify the forms. Gesture thus gives children learning structurally different languages a way to achieve comparable levels of specification while at the same time adhering to the referential expressions dictated by their language.

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When speech is ambiguous, gesture steps in: Sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic principles in early childhood

Cited by 39 publications

References 37 publications

A tale of two hands: children's early gesture use in narrative production predicts later narrative structure in speech

A tale of two hands: children's early gesture use in narrative production predicts later narrative structure in speech

When Do Speakers Use Gestures to Specify Who Does What to Whom? The Role of Language Proficiency and Type of Gestures in Narratives

Turkish- and English-speaking children display sensitivity to perceptual context in the referring expressions they produce in speech and gesture

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