Yoshioka on Gesture in Different Languages
Keiko Yoshioka:
Gestural reference to space by speakers of typologically different languages
some publication here and here
This talk was introduced by De Ruiter as a nice follow-up on Asli’s talk. Keiko is introducing Talmy’s theory about ’sattelite-framed languages’ (English, Dutch, Chinese) versus ‘verb-framed languages’ (Spanish, etc). She explains how, in a verb-framed languages it is less easy to ‘compact Ground elements’. These are new concepts to me, and I have a hard time staying with her. She quotes Slobin a lot (1996) who showed that speakers of a verb-framed language allocate more attention to Ground, which shows in their preference for a certain rhetorical style.
She compared Dutch and Japanese speakers. The explained a story called ‘Frog, where are you’. She is also comparing head-front and head-final languages. She compares speech with and without gestures, and whether the ground was referenced in the verb phrase (VP) or the non-verb phrase. Damn, if only I had studied comparative linguistics better…
Take home message, because our languages differ, we differ in the placement and the content of our gestures.
