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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 126

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

Gesture variation: genre, culture and identity

Authors: Colletta, Jean-Marc; Brookes, Heather
Submitted by: Colletta, Jean-Marc (Université de Grenoble 3, France)

Variation studies, for the most part, focus on factors that account for variation in speech. However, communication is a multimodal phenomenon, and gesture is an integral part of speaking (Kendon 2004; McNeill 1992). The nature of gestures and the way they are produced also vary. Despite a substantial body of work on variation in speech according to social variables such as class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and style, there is much less work on factors that influence variation in gestures and gestural behaviour. Research on cross-cultural variation of speech-accompanying gestures identifies four aspects of gestural variation: cultural specific form-meaning associations; cognitively different conceptions of space and time; differences in language structure and gestural pragmatics i.e. culture-specific norms that shape gestural conduct (Kita 2009). In terms of gestural conduct, several studies show how gestural conduct indexes social meanings and identities. Among black South African male youth on the city streets, use of gestures and gestural style are a vital aspect of gaining status among peers and appearing streetwise and city slick. Gestural behaviour/style plays a role in indexing urban and local identities and social divisions. Gesture is part of expressing urbanness in contrast to a rural identity that is considered backwards, tribal and primitive. However, excessive use of gesture and certain gestural styles index disrespectability and delinquency in the urban social context (Brookes, 2001, 2004, 2005). Along similar lines, Driessen (1991) describes how gestural styles are part of male identity and sociability functioning to enhance or undermine male status in drinking establishments in Andalusia, Spain. Cultural expectations relating to the nature of different oral genres also shapes gesture. Comparative studies of the narrative genre show differences in gesturing between French and Zulu speaking children and adults  (Colletta & Pellenq, 2009; Colletta, Pellenq & Guideti, 2010 ; Kunene, 2010 ). A comparison of French and Zulu gestures reveal differences in cultural expectations that may be inherited from largely distinct literacy traditions. Genre explains differences in the way Zulu children and adults gesture while narrating. These differences do not show in the French data and are to be related to marked communication styles among the Zulu community. Differences in gesture use may not solely be due to external sources of variation. For instance, work on French narratives show large differences in the rate of gesture as well as in other aspects of the narrative performance such as texture and syntax. Accurate description of internal covariations between language and gesture will help reconsider differences in narrative style.

The aim of this panel is to explore factors that shape gestural variation?  In particular, it will look at how social dynamics in the urban environment relating to sociality and identity shape gestural communication and style.The panel will discuss questions about the relationship between internal and external sources of variation; how the communicative economy and characteristics of urban environments and other factors such as cultural expectations, values and norms shape gestural practices and their social meanings; and how gestural variation may differ from spoken linguistic variation, the relationship between the two and how gesture can be considered as part of speech styles.