Language and Gesture in Chinese Conversation

Language and Gesture in Chinese Conversation is a study of the semantic and temporal relationships between the speech and the gesture in the context of discourse interaction in Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan. The cross-modal representation of ideas in natural discourse reveals the nature of BISHOU-SHUOHUÀ in the communication of meaning. The study addresses two central issues: . How do language and gesture represent the semantic information of various types of ideas? . How do the linguistic representation and gestural depiction pattern temporally in the communication of cross-modal information? The intended audience of this book are scholars in many academic fields, including linguistics, language and gesture, human communication, cognition, cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, sociology, linguistic anthropology, speech pathology, and speech therapy.

Kawai Chui is Professor of Linguistics and a research fellow at the Research Center for Mind, Brain, and Learning, and the Research Center for Chinese Cultural Subjectivity, National Chengchi University, Taipei. Her main research interests include the use of language and gesture in discourse, the neurocognitive processing of gestures in speech communication, and the gesture development in children with typical development and children with language delay. She is also engaged in a cross-language investigation of linguistic universality and specificity across Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Czech.

Contents Tables Figures Preface 1 Language and Gesture in Conversation 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Are gestures informative? 1.3 Do gestures synchronize with speech? 1.4 Overview of the study 2 Speech-Gesture Cases in Conversation 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The selection of cross-modal cases 2.3 Gesture phases and temporal demarcation 2.4 Gestural configuration and types of ideas 2.5 A corpus of data for study 3 Language, Gesture, and Semantic Relationship 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Entity 3.3 Motion, manner, and path 3.4 Action and manner 3.5 General discussion 3.6 Conclusion 4 Metaphors in Language and Gesture 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The entity metaphor 4.3 Motion metaphors 4.4 Orientation metaphors 4.5 Action metaphors 4.6 General discussion 4.7 Conclusion 5 Time in Language and Gesture 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Temporal span 5.3 Deictic time 5.4 Sequence time 5.5 General discussion 5.6 Conclusion 6 Language, Gesture, and Temporal Relationship 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Preparation onsets, speech onsets, and fluent speech 6.3 Stroke onsets, speech onsets, and fluent speech 6.4 Gesture onsets, speech onsets, and disrupted speech 6.5 General discussion 6.6 Conclusion 7 Perspectives on Production of Gestures in Speech Communication 7.1 Use profile of gestures in conversation 7.2 The lexical-retrieval view 7.3 The action-system view 7.4 The growth-point view 7.5 General discussion 7.6 Conclusion References Appendices Index