Cover not available

Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 14:2 (2014) ► pp.141–170

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Multimodal constructions in children

Is the headshake part of language?

 | Lund University
Published online: 1 October 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.14.2.02and
Swedish children’s use of the headshake from 18 to 30 months shows a developmental progression from rote-learned and formulaic coordination with speech to increasingly more flexible and productive coordination with speech. To deal with these observations, I make use of the concept of multimodal constructions, to extend usage-based approaches to language learning and construction grammar by inclusion of the kinetic domain. These ideas have consequences for the (meta‑)theoretical question of whether gesture can be said to be part of language or not. I suggest that some speech-coordinated gestures, including the headshake, can be considered part of language, also in the traditional sense of language as a conventionalized system.
References (67)
Acredolo, Linda & Susan Goodwyn (1985). Symbolic gesturing in language development. Human Development, 281, 40–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andrén, Mats (2010). Children’s gestures from 18 to 30 months. PhD Thesis, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University.
(2014a). On the lower limit of gesture. In Mandana Seyfeddinipur & Marianne Gullberg (Eds.), From gesture in conversation to visible action as utterance: Essays in honor of Adam Kendon (pp. 153–174). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, Elizabeth, Inge Bretherton, Luigia Camaioni, &Virginia Volterra (Eds.) (1979). The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, Elizabeth, Philip S. Dale, & Donna Thal (1995). Individual differences and their implications for theories of language development. In Paul Fletcher & Brian MacWhinney (Eds.), Handbook of child language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beaupoil, Pauline (2011). Emergence de la négation chez un enfant monolingue anglais tout-venant: Fonctions et modalités d’expression. MA Thesis, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3.
Bickerton, D. (2003). Symbol and structure: A comprehensive framework for language evolution. In Morten H. Christiansen & Simon Kirby (Eds.), Language evolution (pp. 77–93). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blake, Joanna (2000). Routes to child language: Evolutionary and developmental precursors. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boholm, Max & Jens Allwood (2010). Repeated head movements, their function and relation to speech. In Michael Kipp, Jean-Claude Martin, Patrizia Paggio, & Dirk Heylen (Eds.), Proceedings of the workshop on multimodal corpora: Advances in capturing, coding and analyzing multimodality. LREC 2010. Valletta, Malta, 18 May 2010 (pp. 6–10).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bressem, Jana (2012). Repetitions in gesture: Structures, functions, and cognitive aspects. PhD Thesis, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt-Oder.
Calbris, Geneviève (1983). Contribution à une analyse sémiologique de la mimique fadale et gestuelle française dans ses rapports avec la communication verbale. PhD Thesis. Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III.
Capirci, Olga, Jana M. Iverson, Elena Pizzuto, & Virginia Volterra (1996). Gesture and words during the transition to two-word speech. Journal of Child Language, 231, 645–673. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Choi, Soonja (1988). The semantic development of negation: A cross-linguistic longitudinal study. Journal of Child Language, 151, 517–531. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colletta, Jean-Marc, Catherine Pellenq, & Michèle Guidetti (2010). Age-related changes in co-speech gesture and narrative: Evidence from French children and adults. Speech Communication, 521, 565–576. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William A. (2001). Radical construction grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuffari, Elena (2012). Gestural sense-making: Hand gestures as intersubjective linguistic enactments. Phenomenology & the Cognitive Sciences, 111, 599–622. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London: John Murray. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul & Wallace V. Friesen (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usages and coding. Semiotica, 11, 49–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eriksson, Mårten & Eva Berglund (1999). Swedish early communicative development inventories: Words and gestures. First Language, 19 (55), 55–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele (1995). Constructions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan & Cynthia Butcher (2003). Pointing toward two-word speech in young children. In Sotaro Kita (Ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet (pp. 85–107). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guidetti, Michéle (2005). Yes or no? How young French children combine gestures and speech to agree and refuse. Journal of Child Language, 32 (4), 911–924. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guidetti, Michèle & Elena Nicoladis (2008). Introduction to special issue: Gestures and communicative development. First Language, 28 (2), 107–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gullberg, Marianne & Sotaro Kita (2009). Attention to speech-accompanying gestures: Eye movements and information uptake. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33 (4), 251–277. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graziano, Maria (2009). Rapporto fra lo sviluppo della competenza verbale e gestuale nella costruzione di un testo narrativo in bambini dai 4 ai 10 anni. PhD Thesis, SESA, Università degli studi “Suor Orsola Benincasa”, Napoli & Université Stendhal, Grenoble.
Hockett, Charles F. (1960). The origin of speech. Scientific American, 231, 89–96.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iverson, Jana M. & Susan Goldin-Meadow (2005). Gesture paves the way for language development. Psychological Science, 16 (5), 368–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman (1972). Motor signs for ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Language in Society, 11, 91–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Junefelt, Karin (1987). Blindness and child-adjusted communication. PhD Thesis, Dept. of Nordic Languages, Stockholm University.
Kendon, Adam (1980). Gesticulation and speech: Two aspects of the process of utterance. In Mary Ritchie Key (Ed.), The relationship of verbal and nonverbal communication (pp. 207–227). The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1983). Gesture and speech: How they interact. In John M. Wiemann & Randall P. Harrison (Eds.), Nonverbal interaction (pp. 13–45). Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1995). Gestures as illocutionary and discourse structure markers in Southern Italian conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 231, 247–279. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2002). Some uses of the head shake. Gesture, 2 (2), 147–182. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Semiotic diversity in utterance production and the concept of ‘language’. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 369 (1651), 1–13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kochan, Angelika (2008). The acquisition of negation: A socio-pragmatic study of a bilingual child. MA Thesis, Paris, Ecole Normale Superieure.
Ladewig, Silva (2011). Syntactic and semantic integration of gestures into speech: Structural, cognitive, and conceptual aspects. PhD Thesis, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt-Oder.
Langacker, Ronald W. (2008). Metaphoric gesture and cognitive linguistics. In Alan Cienki & Cornelia Müller (Eds.), Metaphor and gesture (pp. 249–251). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Linell, Per (1982). The written language bias in linguistics. Linköping, Sweden: University of Linköping, Dept. of Communication Sudies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, David (1985). So you think gestures are nonverbal? Psychological Review, 921, 350–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005). Gesture and thought. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, David & Claudia Sowa (2011). Birth of a morph. In Gale Stam & Mika Ishino (Eds.), Integrating gestures: The interdisciplinary nature of gesture (pp. 27–47). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Payrató, Lluís (1993). A pragmatic view on autonomous gestures: A first repertoire of Catalan emblems. Journal of Pragmatics, 20 (3), 193–216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peters, Ann M. (1983). The units of language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richthoff, Ulla (2000). En svensk barnspråkskorpus: Uppbyggnad och analyser. PhD Thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of Göteborg.
Rommetveit, Ragnar (2003). On the role of “a psychology of the second person” in studies of meaning, language and mind. Mind, Culture & Activity, 101, 205–218. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rowe, Meredith L. & Susan Goldin-Meadow (2009). Early gesture selectively predicts later language learning. Developmental Science, 12 (1), 182–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de (1983 [1916]). Course in general linguistics. Trans. Roy Harris. London: Duckworth & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Singleton, Jenny L., Susan Goldin-Meadow, &David McNeill (1995). The cataclysmic break between gesticulation and sign: Evidence against a unified continuum of gestural communication. In Karen Emmorey & Judy S. Reilly (Eds.), Language, sign, and space (pp. 287–311). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard (2000). Toward a cognitive semantics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael (1992). First verbs: A case study of early language development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003). A usage-basedtheory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). Origins of human cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Volterra, Virginia & Franscesco Antinucci (1979). Negation in child language: A pragmatic study. In Elizabeth Bates, Inge Bretherton, Luigia Camaioni, & Virginia Volterra (Eds.), The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy (pp. 281–303). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wikström, Åsa (2008). Den finita satsen i små barns språk. PhD Thesis, Dept. of Scandinavian Languages, Lund University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wundt, Wilhelm (1973 [1921]). The language of gestures. The Hague: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zinober, Brenda & Margaret Martlew (1985). Developmental changes in four types of gesture in relation to acts and vocalizations from 10 to 21 months. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 31, 293–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan (2008). The coevolution of intersubjectivity and bodily mimesis. In Jordan Zlatev, Timothy P. Racine, Chris Sinha, & Esa Itkonen (Eds.), The shared mind: Perspectives on intersubjectivity (pp. 215–244). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan & Mats Andrén (2009). Stages and transitions in children’s semiotic development. In Jordan Zlatev, Mats Andrén, Marlene Johansson Falck, & Carita Lundmark (Eds.), Studies in language and cognition (pp. 380–401). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (22)

Cited by 22 other publications

Hodge, Gabrielle, Elizabeth Manrique, Bodo Winter & Kearsy Cormier
2025. Manual wh-signs and English wh-mouthings differentiate BSL content and polar questions. Linguistics 63:5 ► pp. 1339 ff. DOI logo
Hodge, Gabrielle, Bodo Winter, Adam Schembri & Kearsy Cormier
2025. BSL signers combine different semiotic strategies to negate clauses. Open Linguistics 11:1 DOI logo
Kuryu, Daiya
2025. Crossmodal collostructional analysis of English [ADV and ADV] constructions: multimodal constructions or crossmodal collostructions?. Language and Cognition 17 DOI logo
Morgenstern, Aliyah & Stéphanie Caët
2025. The integration of the visual-gestural modality in research on child language development: A commentary on Karadöller, Sümer and Özyürek. First Language 45:6 ► pp. 769 ff. DOI logo
Nikiforidou, Kiki
2025. Multimodality, conventionality and inheritance in dialogic constructions. In Multimodal Communication from a Construction Grammar Perspective [Constructional Approaches to Language, 38], ► pp. 38 ff. DOI logo
Mouratidou, Alexandra, Jordan Zlatev & Joost van de Weijer
2024. The body says it all: Non-verbal indicators of choice awareness. Cognitive Semiotics 17:2 ► pp. 233 ff. DOI logo
Pleyer, Michael
2023. The role of interactional and cognitive mechanisms in the evolution of (proto)language(s). Lingua 282 ► pp. 103458 ff. DOI logo
Ladewig, Silva H. & Lena Hotze
2021. The Slapping movement as an embodied practice of dislike. Gesture 20:2 ► pp. 285 ff. DOI logo
Ladewig, Silva H. & Lena Hotze
2023. From action to performative gesture: the Slapping movement used by children at the age of four to six. Semiotica 2023:250 ► pp. 91 ff. DOI logo
MORADLOU, Sara, Xiaobei ZHENG, Ye TIAN & Jonathan GINZBURG
2021. Wh-Questions are understood before polar-questions: Evidence from English, German, and Chinese. Journal of Child Language 48:1 ► pp. 157 ff. DOI logo
Bross, Fabian
2020. Why do we shake our heads?. Gesture 19:2-3 ► pp. 269 ff. DOI logo
Ogden, Richard
2020. Audibly Not Saying Something with Clicks. Research on Language and Social Interaction 53:1 ► pp. 66 ff. DOI logo
Gawne, Lauren, Chelsea Krajcik, Helene N. Andreassen, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker & Barbara F. Kelly
2019. Data transparency and citation in the journal Gesture . Gesture 18:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Andrén, Mats & Johan Blomberg
2018. Children’s use of gesture and action with static and dynamic verbs. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 9:1 ► pp. 22 ff. DOI logo
Johnston, Trevor
2018. A corpus-based study of the role of headshaking in negation in Auslan (Australian Sign Language): Implications for signed language typology. Linguistic Typology 22:2 ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
Lepic, Ryan & Corrine Occhino
2018. A Construction Morphology Approach to Sign Language Analysis. In The Construction of Words [Studies in Morphology, 4], ► pp. 141 ff. DOI logo
Schembri, Adam, Kearsy Cormier & Jordan Fenlon
2018. Indicating verbs as typologically unique constructions: Reconsidering verb ‘agreement’ in sign languages. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3:1 DOI logo
Bressem, Jana & Cornelia Müller
2017. The “Negative-Assessment-Construction” – A multimodal pattern based on a recurrent gesture?. Linguistics Vanguard 3:s1 DOI logo
Mittelberg, Irene
2017. Multimodal existential constructions in German: Manual actions of giving as experiential substrate for grammatical and gestural patterns. Linguistics Vanguard 3:s1 DOI logo
Mittelberg, Irene
2017. Embodied frames and scenes. Gesture 16:2 ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo
Schoonjans, Steven
2017. Multimodal Construction Grammar issues are Construction Grammar issues. Linguistics Vanguard 3:s1 DOI logo
Cochet, Hélène & Richard W. Byrne
2016. Communication in the second and third year of life: Relationships between nonverbal social skills and language. Infant Behavior and Development 44 ► pp. 189 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue