title: Does language shape silent gesture?
abstract: Languages differ in how they organize events, particularly in the types of semantic elements they express and the arrangement of those elements within a sentence. Here we ask whether these cross-linguistic differences have an impact on how events are represented nonverbally; more specifically, on how events are represented in gestures produced without speech (silent gesture), compared to gestures produced with speech (co-speech gesture). We observed speech and gesture in 40 adult native speakers of English and Turkish (N=20/per language) asked to describe physical motion events (e.g., running down a path)-a domain known to elicit distinct patterns of speech and co-speech gesture in English- and Turkish-speakers. Replicating previous work (Kita & Özyürek, 2003), we found an effect of language on gesture when it was produced with speech-co-speech gestures produced by English-speakers differed from co-speech gestures produced by Turkish-speakers. However, we found no effect of language on gesture when it was produced on its own-silent gestures produced by English-speakers were identical in how motion elements were packaged and ordered to silent gestures produced by Turkish-speakers. The findings provide evidence for a natural semantic organization that humans impose on motion events when they convey those events without language.
authors.affiliation: Georgia State University, United States. Electronic address: seyda@gsu.edu.
authors.forename: Şeyda
authors.initials: Ş
authors.lastname: Özçalışkan
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, United States.
authors.forename: Ché
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lucero
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, United States.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goldin-Meadow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012660:Semantics; D013060:Speech; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cross-linguistic differences; Gesture; Language and cognition; Motion events