LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:10 October 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Study of Hand Gestures in Adult Speakers of Malayalam

Arun P. T, MASLP
Mili Mary Mathew, Ph.D. Scholar
Prathamesh Bailoor, MASLP

Abstract

It is known that people of different cultures and linguistic backgrounds gesture. This study aimed to understand the nature of co-speech gestures in Malayalam speaking individuals, in terms of the types of gestures produced, frequency and patterns of occurrence, and linguistic encoding of gestures. 6 native speakers of Malayalam within the age range of 20-25 (3 males and 3 females) were selected and were instructed to describe four pictures to a listener who was unaware of these scenes. The results indicated that all participants used gestures, though there were individual variations seen. Almost all individuals were either unimanual or bimanual while speaking. Most of the gestures were produced in synchrony with the ongoing speech. It was also seen that these gestures represented nouns, action words, prepositions and adjectives.

Key words:Co-speech gestures, Frequency of occurrence, Patterns of occurrence, Malayalam

Introduction

Gestures constitute the nonverbal aspect of communication. People of all ages, culture and backgrounds gesture when they speak and gestures emerge in children even before the development of language. Gestures are not random movements; rather these movements are used to communicate some meaning. Gestures are spatio-visual phenomena that are influenced by contextual and socio-psychological factors and are closely tied to sophisticated speaker-internal, linguistic processes (Gullberg, deBot, & Volterra, 2008). Contrary to the earlier observation that gestures are movements produced by hands in a human being, it is now affirmed that gesture is not only performed with hands, but by other parts of body, such as head, face or arms. Thus, gestures are defined as manual [waving to say goodbye], facial [e.g., pouting to show displeasure], or other body movements [e.g., miming an object or person], (Capone, 2010).

There are four main types of co-speech/conversational gestures, namely, iconic, metaphoric, deictic, and beats (McNeill, 1992). Iconic gestures bear a close formal relationship to the semantic content of speech. These gestures visually represent the object attributes, actions and spatial relationships (e.g. when one mimes the holding of a steering wheel while saying ‘drive’). Metaphoric gestures are very similar to iconic gestures except that they depict abstract concepts rather than concrete objects (e.g. when one cups their hands while saying the word ‘concept’). Deictic gestures refer to things indicated by pointing with the hand, finger or chin. They can be either concrete such as pointing to someone, something or somewhere or it can also be abstract, for example, pointing to something/someone who is not present or a place or even a moment in time. Abstract deictics can be shaped by cultural characteristics such as geographical and time references which differ across languages and culture. Beat gestures are rhythmic movements that have no semantic connection to speech that is accompanied. They rather stress important words or phrases expressed in speech. A typical example of a beat would be a flick of the hand or finger.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Arun P. T. MASLP
Clinical Audiologist & Speech Language Pathologist
Klear Speech and Hearing Center
Calicut, Kerala
India
arulay@gmail.com

Mili Mary Mathew, Ph.D. Scholar
All India Institute of Speech and Hearing
Manasagangothri
Mysore, Karnataka
India
milimarym@gmail.com

Prathamesh Bailoor, MASLP
Lecturer
NITTE Institute of Speech and Hearing
Mangalore, Karnataka
India
prathameshbailoor@yahoo.com
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