Abstract
This is a themed collection of articles on gestural communication from a group of outstanding international scholars based on The Fifth Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies in Lund, July, 2012. The motivation for this book is to honor Adam Kendon, a key pioneer in gesture study, whose work has guided research in the field both theoretically and methodologically. In their ‘Foreword’ to the book, Seyfeddinpur and Gullberg note that Kendon is the source of many of the key notions in the research community, and he has laid the foundation for rigorous research on the body in communication.
In the introductory chapter, Seyfeddinpur and Gullberg introduce Kendon’s pioneering work, explicate the reasons for reporting on research work inspired by him and preview the topics in each chapter. The body of the book is structured into six parts. Part I includes two chapters on face and gaze. Bavelas, Gerwing and Healing report how facial gestures convey referential content and serve communicative, interpersonal and interactive functions in dialogues. Streeck discusses how mutual gaze is deployed and how it displays the act of recognition in an action sequence. Part II includes three articles on manual gestures. Brookes explores Kendon’s concept of a communicative ecology of a community by examining gesturing in a South African township, and the underlying cultural norms, physical environments, and their social meanings. McNeill addresses quotable gestures in the Neapolitan gesture culture and the underlying metaphoricity. Mondada applies conversation analysis to examine the organization of actions in which a speaker uses pointing and builds up the joint attention of the co-participants towards an object. Part III includes two articles on the nature of manual gestures and their relationship to language. Müller outlines a form-based and linguistic perspective on a grammar gesture by elaborating on Kendon’s core theoretical assumption of gesture as ‘manifest deliberate expressive movement’. Andrén addresses the question of how to distinguish gesture from semiotically less complex forms of bodily behavior. Part IV involves two articles on language evolution. Corballis supports the gesture-first theory in language evolution by drawing on evidence from nonhuman primates. Goodwin argues against the gesture-first theory by analyzing interactions of an aphasic man and indicates that gesture is not sufficient as co-operative action, but that gesture and speech mutually elaborate each other in human interaction. Part V has three articles on sign systems. Green demonstrates how the different modalities, such as drawing, speaking and signing, integrate temporally and semantically by describing sand stories, a unique art form in Central Australia. Haviland applies a phrase-structure grammar to the signed utterances of deaf Zinacantecs and their family members by building on Kendon’s parsing organization of gesture. Goldin-Meadow examines silent gestures and co-speech gestures based on Kendon’s work on signs and the relationship of signs, gestures and linguistic systems. Part VI includes three articles on child language development. Graziano explores how Italian children produce the Palm Presentation and Palm with a Lateral Movement and how the two types shift in narratives. Cristilli investigates how children use gestures to track discourse reference. Guidetti, Fibigerová and Colletta present an overview of issues left unresolved in relation to gesture and child language acquisition, which call for future study.
Empirical studies on multimodality of language use are under-represented in the literature on the analysis of conversation. In that respect, this book is a welcome addition. I’ll highlight three particular characteristics of the book.
First, the book attests to the enduring importance of Adam Kendon to contemporary research on gesture and social interaction. Contributors in the book follow in the footsteps of Kendon’s work by discussing, applying, developing, elaborating on or arguing against his concepts or views in their further investigation into sub-fields, from facial gestures, gaze, manual gestures, sign language, language evolution and sign system to child language development. The book clearly demonstrates what Kendon’s research legacy means for visible action in utterance and eloquently reflects the influence of his thinking on the field.
Second, extending much further than the literary texts typically prominent in classical discourse analysis, the book explores a range of aural, visual, verbal and kinetic semiotic resources and their multimodal interactions in gesture study, advancing our understanding that language emerges from body movement and that human communication is always multimodal and social (Djonov and Zhao, 2014). Attesting to the indispensability of gesture or visible action in many arenas of social interaction, including language, behavior, thought, art, history and physical environments, the book certainly keeps abreast of developments in various aspects of gesture in conversation.
Third, the book brings together contemporary research in fields such as linguistics, psychology, sociology, ethnography and neuroscience. The wide scope of strands and methodologies discussed in the book indicate the sophisticated nature of gesture as non-verbal communication and provide us with an interdisciplinary perspective on gesture research.
Despite these merits, the book seems to focus on the linguistic, cognitive, cultural and communicative aspects of gesture study, while a rich social dimension to the book would achieve a broader interpretation of how the semantic and structural quality of gesture can be shaped. Also, in Part V of the book, readers outside the brain research sphere may be unfamiliar with such terms as F5, Broca’s area, Wernick’s area, parietal and temporal regions. If Corballis had given a brief introduction of the respective language function that each brain area is associated with, readers would be clearer about how the mirror neurons work in language evolution.
Overall, the book offers a comprehensive picture of contemporary work on gesture and social interaction, which makes an important contribution to multimodal discourse study. I highly recommend the book to researchers interested in discourse analysis and sign linguistics, and to practitioners in relevant professions.