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Eve Sweetser of UC Berkeley has a review of a book by Susan Goldin-Meadow in the June 10 issue of Nature <\/i> . The book is entitled Hearing Gesture <\/i> and it seeks to answer several questions about the cognitive role of gesture: \u201cis gesture really a window on thought? If it is, do most people (as opposed to just researchers) read gesture? Does gesture also help the speaker\u2019s own cognitive processes ?Eand if so, how? And finally, what are the differences between the gestures that accompany speech and visual gestures used on their own.\u201d <\/p>\n
One issue examined in the book is the difference between \u201cmatched\u201d and \u201cmismatched\u201d gestures, gestures that either complement or conflict with the words being spoken. Children, for instance, \u201csay that a tall, thin container has a large volume \u2018because it\u2019s taller,\u2019 but simultaneously make a gesture indicating width\u201d ?Ethat is a mismatched gesture. Though matched gestures make fewer demands on listeners (because they keep the informational content relatively low), mismatched gestures have their uses: \u201cmismatched gestures not only allow speakers to express models that are inaccessible to speech but also give listeners access to those models, with the added advantage of providing potential feedback to speakers.\u201d <\/p>\n
Goldin-Meadow also examines cases when gesture takes on the full burden of communication (eg, mime). In these cases, \u201cgesture becomes \u2018language-like\u2019 . . . conventionalized, segmented and even \u2018grammatized\u2019 ?Ethe gestural systems of orally raised deaf children have a basic grammatical structure.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eve Sweetser of UC Berkeley has a review of a book by Susan Goldin-Meadow in the June 10 issue of Nature . The book is entitled Hearing Gesture and it seeks to answer several questions about the cognitive role of gesture: \u201cis gesture really a window on thought? If it is, do most people (as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"yoast_head":"\n