1. Why iconic gestures aren’t very iconic
Elena Nicoladis

2. Gestures and thought
Gestures are often used in conjunction with speech
Have complementary meaning
Timed with speech
Thoughts are conveyed by gesture + speech (McNeill, 1996)

3. Why do people gesture? To help lexical retrieval
Evidence: Tip-of-the-Tongue experiment with hands free or not free
To help listeners understand
Evidence: Gestures are produced at low frequency word combinations
Note that in conversations, both could be true

4. This talk How do different kinds of gestures relate to speech?
Gesture development
Do gestures compensate for missing or weak speech?
Study of French-English bilingual children

5. Gesture development: prelinguistic gestures
Conventional gestures
Appear around 9 mos.
Symbolic gestures
Appear before words; disappear when words acquired
Deictic or pointing gestures
Appear around 9-12 mos.
Usually with vocalizations

6. Prelinguistic gestures may all be conventional
Symbolic gestures probably are learned from adults
Deictic gestures vary from culture to culture
Ghanian mouth point

7. Gesture development: with-language gestures
Iconic gestures: resemble referent
Emerge around age of 2 years
Correlated with proficiency in French-English bilingual preschoolers between 2;0 and 3;6
Beat gestures: keep time
Rarely seen in the preschool years

8. Do gestures compensate for weak or absent speech?
Deaf people (home signs)
Bilinguals (one language usually weaker)
Elderly
Aphasics

9. Iconic gestures rarely compensate
Deaf children with oral training use words rather than gestures
Elderly people use fewer iconic gestures than younger people
Intermediate bilinguals use fewer iconic gestures in their L2 than their L1
Advanced bilinguals use equal rates of iconic gestures in their L1 and L2

10. Other gestures can compensate
First home signs are mostly conventional gestures and deictic gestures
Broca’s aphasics can still use conventional and deictic gestures
Both intermediate and advanced bilinguals use more deictics in their L2 than their L1

11. Different gestures, different relationship to speech
Prelinguistic gestures can compensate for weak or absent speech
“With-language” gestures do not compensate for weak or absent speech
Home signs can be iconic but only after a communicative system has been established

12. This study How are different kinds of gestures related to speech?
Are iconic gestures more closely linked to speech than other kinds of gestures?

13. This study: Research Questions
Does the rate of gestures relate to proficiency?
Do children create longer utterances with iconic gestures
Do children use “speechless” gestures to compensate for weak proficiency?
Are iconic gestures used in cases of word-finding difficulty?

14. This study: Participants
Eight French-English bilingual children
Between 3;6 and 4;11
Average age: 4;3
4 French-dominant children and 4 English-dominant children
Videotaped in two free-play sessions:
French session
English session

15. Results: Gesture by dominance
Conventional gestures

16. Results: Gesture by dominance
Deictics

17. Results: Gesture by dominance
Iconics

18. Summary: Gesture by dominance
These children used more iconic gestures in their dominant language
They did not use more conventional and deictic gestures in their dominant language

19. Results: Longer utterances?

20. Results: “speechless” gestures

21. Results: Word finding difficulties
Jason (3;7) “It goes like this.”
Gesture meaning: path of movement from a vehicle pictured in a book
1/22 iconic gestures
Aidan (4;11): “So it can go like this and like this.”
Gesture meaning: looping paths that the train tracks they are building should do
6/9 iconic gestures

22. Summary of results #1 Conventional and deictic gestures
Are not used more often with dominant language
Do not lead to longer sentences
Are used more often without speech when trying to communicate in weaker language

23. Summary of results #2 Iconic gestures
Are used more often with dominant language
Produced with longer sentences
Are not used more often without speech when trying to communicate in weaker language
Are occasionally used in cases of word-finding difficulty, possibly increasing with age

24. Iconic gestures aren’t very iconic
They can only be produced when someone knows a language well
This holds true even for bilinguals who CAN produce iconics in their other language
At least one function of iconics may be to “hold down” some concepts while thinking of others (hence, longer utterances possible)

25. Iconic gestures aren’t very iconic
We also have some evidence that the interpretation of iconic gestures is highly dependent on what someone says

26. A troubling question…
Why is the rate of iconic production different by language?
Italians vs. English speakers
Spanish vs. English speakers
Chinese speakers

27. Some possible answers
English speakers think less complex thoughts than Italian and Spanish speakers
The fact that iconic gestures are produced is due to cognitive development. The rate of cognitive gestures is due to cultural variables.
Other ideas??