Kashiwadate, Kei, Yasuda, Testuya, Fujita, Koji, Kita, Sotaro and Kobayashi, Harumi (2020) Syntactic structure influences speech-gesture synchronization. Letters on Evolutionary Behavioral Science, 11 (1). pp. 10-14. doi:10.5178/lebs.2020.73 ISSN 1884-927X.
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Abstract
It is known that a phrase may have multiple meanings. Phrases such as “green tea cup” may be interpreted with two different meanings—a “green-colored tea cup” or a “cup of green tea.” Then how people know the exact meanings of apparently syntactically ambiguous linguistic expressions? We propose that gesture that accompanies speech may help disambiguate syntactically ambiguous structures. The present study investigated whether the difference in phrase structures influences the production of gestures. Participants produced gestures as they produced a Japanese four-word phrases. We examined all possible synchronization patterns of speech and gestures. We found, for the first time, gestures tended to synchronize with the chunks of words that form a constituent in syntactic structures. Our study suggests that gestures may play an important role in disambiguating syntactically ambiguous phrases. This could be a reason why humans have continuously used gestures even after they acquired a powerful tool of language and why today, they still produce language-redundant gestures.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HM Sociology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology |
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Gesture , Body language, Speech and gesture, Ambiguity, Linguistics, Social interaction, Speech acts (Linguistics) |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Letters on Evolutionary Behavioral Science |
| Publisher: | Human Behavior and Evolution Society of Japan |
| ISSN: | 1884-927X |
| Official Date: | 16 March 2020 |
| Dates: | Date Event 16 March 2020 Published 19 February 2020 Accepted |
| Volume: | 11 |
| Number: | 1 |
| Page Range: | pp. 10-14 |
| DOI: | 10.5178/lebs.2020.73 |
| Status: | Peer Reviewed |
| Publication Status: | Published |
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons open licence) |
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 4 March 2020 |
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 24 April 2020 |
| Grant number: | , |
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: | Project/Grant ID RIOXX Funder Name Funder ID |
| URI: | https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/133561/ |
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