Cover not available

Article published In: The gesture–sign interface in language acquisition / L’interface geste–signe dans l’acquisition du langage
Edited by Aliyah Morgenstern and Michèle Guidetti
[Language, Interaction and Acquisition 8:1] 2017
► pp. 42–68

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

The development of iconicity in children’s co-speech gesture and homesign

 | UCLA
 | University of Chicago
 | University of Chicago
 | University of Chicago
Published online: 16 October 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.8.1.03car
Abstract
Gesture can illustrate objects and events in the world by iconically reproducing elements of those objects and events. Children do not begin to express ideas iconically, however, until after they have begun to use conventional forms. In this paper, we investigate how children’s use of iconic resources in gesture relates to the developing structure of their communicative systems. Using longitudinal video corpora, we compare the emergence of manual iconicity in hearing children who are learning a spoken language (co-speech gesture) to the emergence of manual iconicity in a deaf child who is creating a manual system of communication (homesign). We focus on one particular element of iconic gesture – the shape of the hand (handshape). We ask how handshape is used as an iconic resource in 1–5-year-olds, and how it relates to the semantic content of children’s communicative acts. We find that patterns of handshape development are broadly similar between co-speech gesture and homesign, suggesting that the building blocks underlying children's ability to iconically map manual forms to meaning are shared across different communicative systems: those where gesture is produced alongside speech, and those where gesture is the primary mode of communication.
Résumé
Les gestes peuvent représenter des objets ou des évènements grâce à la reproduction iconique de certains éléments de ces objets ou de ces évènements. Cependant, les enfants ne commencent pas à exprimer leurs idées de manière iconique avant d’avoir utilisé des formes conventionnelles. Dans cet article, nous examinons comment l’usage par les enfants des ressources iconiques des gestes est lié au développement de la structure de leur système communicatif. Grâce à des corpus vidéo longitudinaux, nous comparons l’émergence de l’iconicité manuelle chez des enfants entendants qui apprennent une langue vocale (gestes co-verbaux) à l’émergence de l’iconicité manuelle d’un enfant sourd qui crée son propre système manuel de communication (homesign). Nous nous concentrons sur un élément particulier des gestes iconiques : la forme de la main. Nous nous demandons comment la forme de la main est utilisée en tant que ressource iconique de 1 à 5 ans et comment elle est liée au contenu sémantique des actes communicatifs des enfants. Nos résultats mettent en évidence une forte similarité dans le développement des formes manuelles entre les gestes co-verbaux et les homesigns, ce qui indiquerait que les composantes qui sous-tendent les capacités des enfants à apparier les formes manuelles à leur fonction sont partagées à travers les différents systèmes communicatifs, que ce soit quand le geste est produit avec la parole, ou quand le geste est le mode principal de communication.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Iconicity in co-speech gesture
    • 1.2Iconicity in homesign
  • 2.Methods: co-speech gesture
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Data collection
    • 2.3Gesture coding
      • 2.3.1Handshape
      • 2.3.2Referent
      • 2.3.3Actions-on-objects and actions-without-objects
    • 2.4Reliability
    • 2.5Gesture corpus
  • 3.Methods: homesign
    • 3.1Participant
    • 3.2Data collection
    • 3.3Data coding
      • 3.3.1Handshape
      • 3.3.2Referent
      • 3.3.3Actions-on-objects and actions-without-objects
    • 3.4Reliability
    • 3.5Gesture corpus
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Frequency of iconic gesture
    • 4.2Handshape form over time
    • 4.3Handshape when referencing actions vs. entities
    • 4.4Handshape use when referencing actions-on-objects and actions-without-objects
  • 5.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (58)
References
Acredolo, L. P., & Goodwyn, S. W. (1985). Symbolic gesturing in language development. Human Development 28(1), 40–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1988). Symbolic gesturing in normal infants. Child Development 591, 450–466. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, E. (1976). Language and context: The acquisition of pragmatics. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, E., Benigni, L., Bretherton, I., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1979). The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benedicto, E., & Brentari, D. (2004). Where did all the arguments go? Argument-changing properties of classifiers in ASL. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 22(4), 743–810. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boyatzis, C. J., & Watson, M. W. (1993). Preschool children's symbolic representation of objects through gestures. Child Development 64(3), 729–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brentari, D., DiRenzo, A., Keane, J., & Volterra, V. (2015). Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Sources of a Handshape Distinction Expressing Agentivity. Topics in Cognitive Science 71, 95–123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butcher, C., Mylander, C., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (1991). Displaced communication in a self-styled gesture system: Pointing at the non-present. Cognitive Development 61, 315–342. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calbris, G. (2011). Elements of meaning in gesture (Vol. 51). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Capirci, O., Contaldo, A., Caselli, M. C., & Volterra, V. (2005). From action to language through gesture: A longitudinal perspective. Gesture 5(1–1), 155–177. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cartmill, E. A., Demir, O. E., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2011). Studying gesture. In E. Hoff (Ed.), The guide to research methods in child language (pp. 208–225). West Sussex, England: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cartmill, E. A., Novack, M., Loftus, W., Goldin-Meadow, S. (in preparation) Tracing the development of gesture: Does iconic gesture become more abstract over time?
Caselli, M. C., Rinaldi, P., Stefanini, S., & Volterra, V. (2012). Early Action and Gesture “Vocabulary” and Its Relation With Word Comprehension and Production. Child Development 83(2), 526–542. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Emmorey, K., & Herzig, M. (2003). Categorical versus gradient properties of classifier constructions in ASL. In K. Emmorey (Ed.), Perspectives on Classifier Constructions in Signed Languages (pp. 221–246). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feldman, H., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Gleitman, L. (1978). Beyond Herodotus: The creation of language by linguistically deprived deaf children. In A. Lock (Ed.), Action, symbol, and gesture: The emergence of language (pp. 351–414). New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Franklin, A., Giannakidou, A., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2011). Negation, questions, and structure building in a homesign system. Cognition 1181, 398–416. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, T. (1979). On understanding grammar. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S. (1979). Structure in a manual communication system developed without a conventional language model: Language without a helping hand. In H. Whitaker & H. A. Whitaker (Eds.), Studies in Neurolinguistics (Vol. 41). New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003). The resilience of language: What gesture creation in deaf children can tell us about how all children learn language. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). How gesture helps children learn language. In I. Arnon, M. Casillas, C. Kurumada & B. Estigarribia (Eds.) Language in Interaction. Studies in honor of Eve V. Clark, (pp. 157–171). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., Butcher, C., Mylander, C., & Dodge, M. (1994). Nouns and verbs in a self-styled gesture system: What’s in a name? Cognitive Psychology 271, 259–319. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., Levine, S. C., Hedges, L. V., Huttenlocher, J., Raudenbush, S., & Small, S. (2014) New evidence about language and cognitive development based on a longitudinal study: Hypotheses for intervention. American Psychologist 69(6), 588–599. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., & Mylander, C. (1984). Gestural communication in deaf children: The effects and non-effects of parental input on early language development. Monographs of the Society for Re- search in Child Development 491, 1–121. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1998). Spontaneous sign systems created by deaf children in two cultures. Nature 911, 279–281. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., Mylander, C., & Butcher, C. (1995). The resilience of combinatorial structure at the word level: Morphology in self-styled gesture systems. Cognition 56(3), 195–262. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., Mylander, C., & Franklin, A. (2007). How children make language out of gesture: Morphological structure in gesture systems developed by American and Chinese deaf children. Cognitive Psychology 55(2), 87–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodrich, W., & Hudson Kam, C. L. (2009). Co‐speech gesture as input in verb learning. Developmental science 12(1), 81–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hawkins, John A. (1988) Explaining language universals. In J. A. Hawkins (Ed.), Explaining language universals (pp. 3–28). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, P. J. & Thompson, S. A. (1984) The iconicity of the universal categories ‘noun’ and ‘verbs’. In J. Haiman (Ed.), Iconicity in syntax (pp.151–183). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iverson, J. M., Capirci, O., & Caselli, M. C. (1994). From communication to language in two modalities. Cognitive Development 9(1), 23–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marentette, P., & Nicoladis, E. (2011). Preschoolers’ interpretations of gesture: Label or action associate? Cognition 121(3), 386–399. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marentette, P., Pettenati, P., Bello, A., & Volterra, V. (2016). Gesture and Symbolic Representation in Italian and English‐Speaking Canadian 2‐Year‐Olds. Child development 87(3), 944–961. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meier, R. P., Mauk, C. E., Cheek, A., & Moreland, C. J. (2008). The form of children’s early signs: iconic or motoric determinants?. Language learning and development 4(1), 63–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mizuguchi, T., & Sugai, K. (2002). Object-related knowledge and the production of gestures with imagined objects by preschool children. Perceptual and Motor Skills 94(1), 71–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mitchell, R. W., & Clark, H. (2015). Experimenter’s pantomimes influence children’s use of body part as object and imaginary object pantomimes: A replication. Journal of Cognition and Development 161, 703–718. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Namy, L. L. (2008). Recognition of iconicity doesn't come for free. Developmental science 11(6), 841–846. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Namy, L. L., Campbell, A. L., & Tomasello, M. (2004). The changing role of iconicity in non-verbal symbol learning: A U-shaped trajectory in the acquisition of arbitrary gestures. Journal of Cognition and Development 5(1), 37–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nicoladis, E., Mayberry, R. I., & Genesee, F. (1999). Gesture and early bilingual development. Developmental Psychology 35(2), 514. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Novack, M. A., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Woodward, A. L. (2015). Learning from gesture: How early does it happen? Cognition 1421, 138–147. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Novack, M., Cartmill, E. A., Loftus, W. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (in preparation). Tracing the development of gesture: Does iconic gesture become more abstract over time?
Ortega, G., & Ozyurek, A. (2016). Generalisable patterns of gesture distinguish semantic categories in communication without language. In 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2016) (pp. 1182–1187). Cognitive Science Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Overton, W. F., & Jackson, J. P. (1973). The representation of imagined objects in action sequences: A developmental study. Child Development 44(2), 309–314. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özçalışkan, Ş., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005). Gesture is at the cutting edge of early language development. Cognition 96(3), B101–B113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özçalışkan, S., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009). When gesture – speech combinations do and do not index linguistic change. Language and Cognitive Processes 241, 190–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özçalışkan, Ş., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2011). Is there an iconic gesture spurt at 26 months? In G. Stam, & M. Ishino (Eds.), Integrating gestures: The interdisciplinary nature of gesture (pp. 163–174). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Padden, C. A., Meir, I., Hwang, S. -O., Lepic, R., Seegers, S., & Sampson, T. (2013). Patterned iconicity in sign language lexicons. Gesture 13(3), 287–308. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pettenati, P., Stefanini, S., & Volterra, V. (2010). Motoric characteristics of representational gestures produced by young children in a naming task. Journal of Child language 37(4), 887–911. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rissman, L. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (in press) The development of causal structure without a language model. Language Learning and Development.
Rissman, L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2017). The Development of Causal Structure without a Language Model. Language Learning and Development, 1–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rowe, M. L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009). Early gesture selectively predicts later language learning. Developmental Science 121, 182–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sapir, E. (1921) Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schachter, P. (1985) Parts-of-speech systems. In T. Shopen (Ed.). Language typology and syntactic description: Clause Structure Vol. 1 (pp. 3–61). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stanfield, C., Williamson, R., & Özçalişkan, Ş. E. Y. D. A. (2014). How early do children understand gesture – speech combinations with iconic gestures? Journal of Child Language 41(2), 462–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Supalla, T., & Newport, E. (1978). How many seats in a chair? The derivation of nouns and verbs in American Sign Language. In P. Siple (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tolar, T. D., Lederberg, A. R., Gokhale, S., & Tomasello, M. (2008). The development of the ability to recognize the meaning of iconic signs. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education,13(2), 225–240. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (13)

Cited by 13 other publications

Cartmill, Erica A.
2025. Gestural Iconicity and Alignment as Steps in the Evolution of Language. Topics in Cognitive Science 17:3 ► pp. 469 ff. DOI logo
Boden, Ulrich J., Friederike Kern, Sofia Koutalidis, Olga Abramov, Anne Nemeth, Stefan Kopp & Katharina J. Rohlfing
2024. Four-year-olds’ visuospatial cognitive abilities and their relation to observer‑viewpoint gestures across three communicative tasks. Pragmatics & Cognition 31:1 ► pp. 49 ff. DOI logo
KERN, Friederike, Ulrich BODEN, Anne NEMETH, Sofia KOUTALIDIS, Olga ABRAMOV, Stefan KOPP & Katharina J. ROHLFING
2024. Preschool children’s discourse competence in different genres and how it relates to iconic gestures. Journal of Child Language 51:3 ► pp. 656 ff. DOI logo
Green, Kirsty R., Chloe Osei-Cobbina, Marcus Perlman & Sotaro Kita
2023. Infants can create iconic gestures during natural interactions with caregivers. Gesture 22:3 ► pp. 288 ff. DOI logo
Novack, Miriam A. & Susan Goldin-Meadow
2023. Harnessing gesture to understand and support healthy development. In Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Health, ► pp. 40 ff. DOI logo
Holler, Judith
2022. Visual bodily signals as core devices for coordinating minds in interaction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377:1859 DOI logo
Boutet, Dominique, Marion Blondel, Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel & Aliyah Morgenstern
2021. A multimodal and kinesiological approach to the development of negation in signing and non-signing children. Languages and Modalities 1 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Karadöller, Dilay Z., Beyza Sümer & Aslı Özyürek
2021. Effects and Non-Effects of Late Language Exposure on Spatial Language Development: Evidence from Deaf Adults and Children. Language Learning and Development 17:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Koulidobrova, Elena & Deborah Chen Pichler
2021. Cripping the “Delay”: Multilingualism-Related Consequences of Re-Labeling Language Deprivation Systems. Frontiers in Communication 6 DOI logo
Novack, Miriam A. & Sandra Waxman
2020. Becoming human: human infants link language and cognition, but what about the other great apes?. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 375:1789 ► pp. 20180408 ff. DOI logo
Bohn, Manuel, Josep Call & Michael Tomasello
2019. Natural reference: A phylo‐ and ontogenetic perspective on the comprehension of iconic gestures and vocalizations. Developmental Science 22:2 DOI logo
Debras, Camille & Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel
2019. Gestualité et construction des chaînes de référence dans un corpus d’interactions tandem. Cahiers de praxématique :72 DOI logo
Blondel, Marion, Dominique Boutet, Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel & Aliyah Morgenstern
2017. La négation chez les enfants signeurs et non signeurs. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 8:1 ► pp. 141 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 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