Cover not available

In:From Gesture in Conversation to Visible Action as Utterance: Essays in honor of Adam Kendon
Edited by Mandana Seyfeddinipur and Marianne Gullberg
[Not in series 188] 2014
► pp. 351–370

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

Gestures and multimodal development

Some key issues for language acquisition

ORCiD logo with link | Université Toulouse 2, Unité de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Octogone (EA 4156), Laboratoire « Cognition, Communication et Développement », Institut des Sciences du Cerveau de Toulouse (France)
 | Université Toulouse 2, CLLE-ERSS UMR CNRS 5263 (France)
 | Université Stendhal-Grenoble 3, LIDILEM (France)
Published online: 6 August 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.188.16gui
Children begin to gesture long before talking. Gestures, such as pointing or waving goodbye, constitute the principal means of interacting conventionally with others before the emergence of the lexicon. Children continue to gesture after they start to talk, and through to adulthood. In spite of that, some key concepts related to gesture and language acquisition, both theoretical and methodological, still remain unclear and/or are out of consensus among scholars, such as gestures and language acquisition and evolution, multimodal development, form and function in gestures, and gesture classification and terminology. To better understand language acquisition, we will discuss these issues in the light of Adam Kendon’s work.
References (52)
References
Abry, Claude, Vilain, Anne, and Schwartz, Jean-Luc (eds). 2009. Vocalize to Localize. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bamberg, Michael. 1987. The Acquisition of Narratives: Learning to Use Language. Berlin: ­Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baudonnière, Pierre M. 1997. Le Mimétisme et l’Imitation. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A., and Slobin, Dan I. 1994. Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruner, Jerome S. 1975a. “The ontogenesis of speech acts.” Journal of Child Language 2: 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1975b. “From communication to language: A psychological perspective.” Cognition 3: 255–287. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1990. Acts of Meaning. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Capirci, Olga, Iverson, Jana M., Pizzuto, Elena, and Volterra, Virginia. 1996. “Gestures and words during the transition to two-word speech.” Journal of Child Language 3: 645–675. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colletta, Jean-Marc, Pellenq, Catherine, and Guidetti, Michèle. 2010. “Age-related changes in co-speech gesture and narrative: Evidence from French children and adults.” Speech Communication 52: 565–576. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corballis, Michael C. 2002. From Hand to Mouth: The Origins of Language. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dahan, Georges, and Cosnier, Jacques. 1977. “Sémiologie des quasi-linguistiques français.” Psychologie Médicale 9 (11): 2053–2072.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Ruiter, Jan P. 2000. “The production of gesture and speech.” In Language and Gesture, David McNeill (ed.), 284–311. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Efron, David. 1972 [1941]. Gesture, Race and Culture. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul, and Friesen, Wallace. 1969. “The repertoire of non-verbal behaviour: Categories, origins, usage and coding.” Semiotica 1: 49–97.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, Susan M. 2002. “Developmental pragmatics: State of art and perspectives. In Pragmatique et Psychology , Josie Bernicot, Alain Trognon, Michèle Guidetti and Michel Musiol (eds), 179–193. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gentilucci, Maurizio, and Corballis, Michael. 2006. “From manual gesture to speech: A gradual transition.” Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews 30: 949–960. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan. 2003. Hearing Gesture: How our Hands Help Us Think. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, and Butcher, Carolyn.2003. Pointing toward two-word speech in young children. In Pointing: Where Language, Culture, and Cognition Meet, Sotaro Kita (ed.), 85–107. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graziano, Maria. 2009. Le développement de la relation entre les compétences verbale et gestuelle dans la construction d’un texte narratif chez l’enfant âgé de 4 à 10 ans. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Université Stendhal, Grenoble et Università degli Studî Suor Orsola Benincasa, Napoli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guidetti, Michèle. 2002. “The emergence of pragmatics: Forms and functions of conventional gestures in young French children.” First Language 22 (3): 265–285.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “Yes or no? How do young children combine gestures and words to agree and refuse.” Journal of Child Language 32: 911–924. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gullberg, Marianne, de Bot, Kes, and Volterra, Virginia. 2008. “Gestures and some key issues in the study of language development.” Gesture 8 (2): 149–179. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gullberg, Marianne, Hendriks, Henriëtte, and Hickmann, Maya. 2008. “Learning to talk and gesture about motion in French.” First Language 28 (2): 200–236. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hauser, Marc D., Chomsky, Noam, and Fitch, W.Tecumseh. 2002. “The faculty of language: What is it, who has it and how did it evolve?” Science 298: 1569–1579. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickmann, Maya. 2003. Children’s Discourse: Person, Space, and Time across Languages. ­Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iverson, Jana M., and Goldin-Meadow, Susan (eds). 1998. The Nature and Functions of Gesture in Children’s Communication. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, Spencer D. 2001. “Broadening the units of analysis in communication: Speech and nonverbal behaviours in pragmatic comprehension.” Journal of Child Language 28: 325–349. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendon, Adam. 1988. How gestures can become like words. In Crosscultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication, Francisco Poyatos (ed.), 131–141. Toronto: C.J.Hogrefe Publishers.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
Kita, Sotaro, and Özyürek, Asli. 2003. “What does cross-linguistic variation in semantic coordination of speech and gesture reveal? Evidence for an interface representation of spatial thinking and speaking.” Journal of Memory and Language 48: 16–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krauss, Robert M., Chen, Yihsiu, and Gottesman, Rebecca F. 2000. “Lexical gestures and lexical access: A process model.” In Language and Gesture, David McNeill (ed.), 261–283. ­Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kunene, Ramona. 2010. A comparative study of the development of multimodal narratives in French and Zulu children and adults. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Université Stendhal, Grenoble.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luria, Alexander R., and Vygotsky, Lev S. 1992 [1930]. Ape, Primitive Man and Child – Essays in the History of Behavior. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, David. 1992. Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Language and Gesture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Gesture and Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. How Language Began: Gesture and Speech in Human Evolution. ­Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Namy, Laura, and Waxman, Sandra R. 2002. “Patterns of spontaneous production of novel words and gestures within an experimental setting in children ages 1;6 and 2;2.” Journal of Child Language 29: 911–921. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nespoulous, J.L., Perron, P., and Lecours, A.R. (eds). 1986. The Biological Foundations of Gestures: Motor and Semiotic Aspects. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özyürek, Asli, Kita, Sotaro, Allen, Shanley, Brown, Amanda, Furman, Reyhan, and Ishizuka, Tomoko. 2008. “Development of cross-linguistic variation in speech and gesture: Motion events in English and Turkish.” Developmental Psychology 44 (4): 1040–1054. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reig Alamillo, Alessa, Colletta, Jean-Marc, and Guidetti, Michèle. 2013. “Gesture and language in narratives and explanations: The effects of age and communicative activity on late multimodal discourse development.” Journal of Child Language 40 (3): 511–538. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John R., and Vanderveken, Daniel. 1985. Foundations of Illocutionary Logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. 2000. “Primate cognition: Introduction to the issue.” Cognitive Science 24 (3): 351–361. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. “The pragmatics of primate communication.” In Handbook of Pragmatics, Jef Verschueren, Jan-Ola Östman and Jan Blommaert (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael, Call, Josep, Warren, Jennifer, Frost, G.Thomas, Carpenter, Melinda, and Nagell, Katherine. 1997. “The ontogeny of chimpanzee gestural signals: A comparison across groups and generations. Evolution of Communication 1 (2): 223–260. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael, and Camaioni, Luigia. 1997. “A comparison of the gestural communication of apes and human infants.” Human Development 40: 7–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael, and Slobin, Dan (eds). 2004. Elisabeth Bates: A Festschrift. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verschueren, Jef. 1999. Understanding Pragmatics. London: Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Volterra, Virginia, Caselli, Maria Cristina, Capirci, Olga, and Pizzuto, Elena. 2004. “Gesture and the emergence and development of language.” In Elisabeth Bates: A Festschrift, Michael Tomasello and Dan Slobin (eds), 3–40. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Volterra, Virginia, and Erting, Carol J. (eds). 1990. From Gesture to Language in Hearing and Deaf Children. New York: Springer-Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vygotsky, Lev. 1978 [1931]. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Dafreville, Mawa, Michèle Guidetti & Marie Bourjade
2024. Patterns of attention‐sensitive communication contribute to 7–20‐month‐olds' emerging pragmatic skills. Infancy 29:2 ► pp. 216 ff. DOI logo
Rodrigues, Evelina D., João Marôco & Sónia Frota
2021. Communicative gestures in 7–12‐month infants: A phylogenetic comparative approach. Infant and Child Development 30:5 DOI logo
Mazur-Palandre, Audrey & Kristine Lund
2016. Explanatory content and visibility effects on the young child’s verbal and gestural behavior in free dialogues. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 7:2 ► pp. 180 ff. DOI logo
Mazur-Palandre, Audrey & Kristine Lund
2019. Chapitre 4. Explication « en comment » d’enfants de 6 ans : les relations temporelles et sémantiques entre les unités linguistiques et gestuelles. In Multimodalité du langage dans les interactions et l’acquisition, ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 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