2025/10/16 by Carl Börstell, Ryan Lepic · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Psychology · #Conceptualization #Gesture #Hand Gesture Recognition Systems #Hearing Impairment and Communication #Iconicity #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Meaning (existential) #Plural #Salient #Sign (mathematics) #Sign language
paper · doi:10.1515/lingvan-2024-0181
published in Linguistics Vanguard 11(1), 545-557 (De Gruyter)
openalex publication_date 2025/10/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Abstract Sign languages have been shown to favor two-handed forms to express plural meanings, and in this paper we investigate whether this pattern is similarly found in silent gestures improvised by hearing non-signers. We use 100 concepts with corresponding plurality ratings as stimuli for a silent gesture elicitation task, in which five hearing non-signers are asked to improvise manual gestures for each of the concepts, and the elicited gestures are then coded for number of hands used (i.e., whether they are one- or two-handed). In line with previous findings from sign language research, we find that the silent gestures improvised by hearing non-signers favor two-handed forms when expressing plural meanings. Thus, we argue that the iconic pattern of mapping multiple articulators (the hands) to a plural conceptualization of meaning is salient in the visual modality, such that this pattern arises from general cognitive preferences available to gesturers and signers alike.