2018 Friday Poster 6583

Friday, November 2, 2018 | Poster Session I, Metcalf Small | 3pm

How early does speaking shape the native language of gesture?
S. Ozcaliskan, S. Goldin-Meadow

Adults show systematic cross-linguistic differences in how they package and order components of a motion event in speech¹. These differences influence the organization of semantic elements in gesture, but only when gestures are produced with speech (co- speech gesture), not without speech (silent gesture). For example, adult speakers of different languages package and order semantic components of events differently and in accord with their languages when describing them in speech with co-speech gesture, but they package and order the components in precisely the same way when describing them in silent gesture.² Here we ask when children begin to show adult-like patterns in co-speech and silent gesture. Based on the currently inconclusive literature on co-speech gesture, we expect that children will show language-specific adult-like patterns in co-speech gesture either later than (>age 3)³ or at the same time as they show language-specific speech (age 3).⁴ Given the scarcity of work on silent gesture, we expect that children might or might not show the cross-linguistic similarities that adults exhibit in silent gesture at an early age.

We investigated this question by studying speech and gestures produced by 80 child native speakers of English and Turkish (n=40/language), equally divided into 4 age groups: 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-10. We focused on physical motion—a domain that elicits distinct patterns of speech and co-speech gesture in English and Turkish speakers with respect to manner (e.g., running) and path (e.g., entering). English speakers typically use conflated gestures, synthesizing manner and path into a single gesture (e.g., wiggle fingers forward to convey running forward); Turkish speakers use separated gestures, producing one gesture for manner (e.g., wiggle finger in the same location to convey running) and another for path (move finger forward to convey forward movement). The two languages also differ in the ordering of semantic components in speech, with motion situated either at the end (Figure-Ground-MOTION, Turkish) or in the middle (Figure-MOTION-Ground, English) of an event description. Each child described 8 three-dimensional scenes displaying motion in various paths and manners. We coded the gestures and speech as separated (i.e., gesture/speech conveys either path-only or manner-only) or as conflated (i.e., gesture/speech conveys manner and path simultaneously); we also coded both modalities for order—as following either a typical Turkish Figure-Ground-MOTION pattern or a typical English Figure-MOTION- Ground pattern.

Packaging of motion elements in co-speech gesture showed cross-linguistic differences observable by age 3-4 (p<.01): children learning English used more conflated gestures than children learning Turkish, who produced mostly separated gestures— replicating the patterns found in speech. In contrast, we found no cross-linguistic differences in silent gesture; English and Turkish speakers used almost exclusively conflated gestures by 3-4 (Fig.1A₁-A₃). Ordering of motion elements in co-speech gesture was rare—with most children producing gestures for motion only—and did not follow the expected cross-linguistic differences. However, children showed strong cross-linguistic similarities in the ordering of their silent gestures, beginning by 5-6 (Fig.1B₁-B₃). Our results provide evidence for an early emerging natural semantic organization for motion events when describing them in silent gesture.

References

1Talmy (2000). Toward a cognitive semantics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. ²Özçalışkan et al. (2016). Does language shape silent gesture? Cognition, 148, 10-18. ³Özyürek et al. (2008). Development of cross-linguistic variation in speech and gesture: Motion events in English and Turkish. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1040–1054. ⁴Özçalışkan et al. (2014). Do iconic gestures pave the way for children’s early verbs? Applied Psycholinguistics, 35, 1143-1162.