Speakers' gestures in relation to semantic analysis

Activity: Lecture / PresentationAcademic

Description

The talk considered how the study of speakers' gestures can contribute to semantic analysis of spoken language, taking the position in cognitive linguistics that semantics is based in conceptual structures and processes. We see what spontaneous use of gesture might reveal, as well as what it cannot, about phenomena such as mental simulation, the use of spatial imagery, and objectification of abstract concepts (through metonymy and metaphor). Consideration is given to differences between production of communicative behaviors by speakers and comprehension by those hearing and seeing them (that is: whose conceptual structures and processes we are making claims about). In addition, since both spoken language and gesture are dynamic phenomena, we consider the implications this dynamicity has for semantic analysis. Finally, semantics and pragmatics are viewed as points on a continuum in cognitive linguistics, and we see how this plays out in terms of the different functions of gesture.
Period24 Mar 2023
Held atThe USAL-UVA Linguistics Research Seminars, Spain
Degree of RecognitionInternational