This article investigates the way speakers combine different verbal and gestural resources to express aspectual meaning in American English, specifically the way an event is repeated. It identifies stable gestural correlates to the OVER AND OVER adverbial phrase, which involves lexical iteration. Speakers have been shown to rely on co-verbal gestures to communicate aspectual information along with lexical and grammatical means. However, most of the research has focused on hand gestures, and on comparing the embodiment of different categories of aspect. Cyclic gestures have particularly been found in aspectual contexts, and linked with meanings of motion, either physical or metaphorical, as well as continuity. We use video datasets of spoken American English belonging to the Distributed Little Red Hen Lab (Steen et al. 2018) as part of the UCLA Library NewsScape Archive. We determine which formal features participate in the expression of iteration, in a variety of articulators (hands, head, eyebrows), and carry out a quantitative analysis, targeting gesture proportion, timing, and duration. This study shows how gestural components blend in and participate in the expression of grammatical and pragmatic meaning in speech. More specifically, it adds to the ongoing discussion within Construction Grammar about conventionality in multimodal constructions.
Cet article porte sur la façon dont les locuteurs combinent différentes ressources verbales et gestuelles pour exprimer des valeurs aspectuelles en anglais américain. Ce travail porte plus précisément sur l’expression de l’aspect itératif, i.e. la répétition d’un procès. Cette étude s’attache à identifier des corrélats gestuels stables au groupe adverbial OVER AND OVER. Cette expression implique une itération lexicale. De nombreuses études en linguistique cognitive ont montré qu’outre des moyens lexicaux et grammaticaux, les locuteurs utilisent la gestualité co-verbale pour communiquer des informations aspectuelles. Cependant, la plupart des recherches se sont concentrées sur les gestes manuels et sur la comparaison des gestes manuels produits en co-occurrence avec différentes catégories d’aspect. La famille des gestes cycliques a notamment été mise en avant pour ses évocations physiques et métaphoriques du mouvement. L’un des contextes d’utilisation typiques de ce geste en anglais est l’expression de la continuité. Nous déterminons sous quelles formes les traits gestuels de ces expressions impliquent également l’itération. Nous utilisons une collection d’enregistrements audiovisuels, les archives NewsScape, créées par le Distributed Little Red Hen Lab (Steen et al. 2018) et hébergées par la bibliothèque de UCLA. Nous déterminons les caractéristiques formelles qui participent à l’expression de l’itération, dans une variété d’articulateurs (mains, tête, sourcils), et menons une analyse quantitative, ciblant la fréquence des gestes. Une analyse qualitative montre l’articulation des différentes ressources verbales et gestuelles en contexte. Cette étude met en évidence la façon dont les composantes gestuelles s’intègrent et participent à l’expression du sens grammatical et pragmatique dans le discours. Plus précisément, elle contribue à la discussion en cours au sein de la grammaire des constructions sur la conventionnalité dans les constructions multimodales.
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All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
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This article investigates the way speakers combine different verbal and gestural resources to express aspectual meaning in American English, specifically the way an event is repeated. It identifies stable gestural correlates to the OVER AND OVER adverbial phrase, which involves lexical iteration. Speakers have been shown to rely on co-verbal gestures to communicate aspectual information along with lexical and grammatical means. However, most of the research has focused on hand gestures, and on comparing the embodiment of different categories of aspect. Cyclic gestures have particularly been found in aspectual contexts, and linked with meanings of motion, either physical or metaphorical, as well as continuity. We use video datasets of spoken American English belonging to the Distributed Little Red Hen Lab (Steen et al. 2018) as part of the UCLA Library NewsScape Archive. We determine which formal features participate in the expression of iteration, in a variety of articulators (hands, head, eyebrows), and carry out a quantitative analysis, targeting gesture proportion, timing, and duration. This study shows how gestural components blend in and participate in the expression of grammatical and pragmatic meaning in speech. More specifically, it adds to the ongoing discussion within Construction Grammar about conventionality in multimodal constructions.
Cet article porte sur la façon dont les locuteurs combinent différentes ressources verbales et gestuelles pour exprimer des valeurs aspectuelles en anglais américain. Ce travail porte plus précisément sur l’expression de l’aspect itératif, i.e. la répétition d’un procès. Cette étude s’attache à identifier des corrélats gestuels stables au groupe adverbial OVER AND OVER. Cette expression implique une itération lexicale. De nombreuses études en linguistique cognitive ont montré qu’outre des moyens lexicaux et grammaticaux, les locuteurs utilisent la gestualité co-verbale pour communiquer des informations aspectuelles. Cependant, la plupart des recherches se sont concentrées sur les gestes manuels et sur la comparaison des gestes manuels produits en co-occurrence avec différentes catégories d’aspect. La famille des gestes cycliques a notamment été mise en avant pour ses évocations physiques et métaphoriques du mouvement. L’un des contextes d’utilisation typiques de ce geste en anglais est l’expression de la continuité. Nous déterminons sous quelles formes les traits gestuels de ces expressions impliquent également l’itération. Nous utilisons une collection d’enregistrements audiovisuels, les archives NewsScape, créées par le Distributed Little Red Hen Lab (Steen et al. 2018) et hébergées par la bibliothèque de UCLA. Nous déterminons les caractéristiques formelles qui participent à l’expression de l’itération, dans une variété d’articulateurs (mains, tête, sourcils), et menons une analyse quantitative, ciblant la fréquence des gestes. Une analyse qualitative montre l’articulation des différentes ressources verbales et gestuelles en contexte. Cette étude met en évidence la façon dont les composantes gestuelles s’intègrent et participent à l’expression du sens grammatical et pragmatique dans le discours. Plus précisément, elle contribue à la discussion en cours au sein de la grammaire des constructions sur la conventionnalité dans les constructions multimodales.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 114 | 114 | 8 |
Full Text Views | 7 | 7 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 23 | 23 | 0 |