Gestural Meanings: Typology and Interface Constraints

Project Information

GeMeTIC

Grant agreement ID: 891493

DOI

10.3030/891493

Project closed

EC signature date 20 March 2020

Start date 1 September 2020

End date 31 August 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 202 158,72

EU contribution

€ 202 158,72

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GeMeTIC (Gestural Meanings: Typology and Interface Constraints)

Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2022-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

When we speak, we convey meaning via various means: conventionalized spoken morphemes (“words”); less conventionalized vocalizations (vocal gestures); movements of the hands, face, or other parts of the body (body gestures) of varied conventionalization status; prosody (or intonation), including non-obligatory prosodic modulations (prosodic gestures). There are, furthermore, different types of meaning we can convey. In particular, we can exchange facts about the world, e.g. by asserting things like ‘I am angry’ (truth-based meaning), but we can also express meaning performatively, e.g. let out our anger by swearing or express aspects of our identity via linguistic and near-linguistic behavior (non-truth-based, performative meaning).

This project investigated how different types of truth-based and non-truth-based (especially performative) meaning are conveyed via various means—with focus on gesture, broadly construed— with the ultimate goal to uncover the channel-independent universals of meaning composition as well as channel-specific constraints on meaning expression. The project yielded several major novel empirical discoveries in this respect, with important theoretical implications for the field of formal linguistics, and especially formal semantics.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The main results of the project are:
- It has been established that “gestures” (broadly construed) can encode any type of meaning “words” can.
- It has been established that the channel of a given expression is not relevant for the fundamental architectural differences (namely, whether a given piece of meaning has to interact semantically with its syntactic surroundings and whether a given piece of meaning can be ignored in elliptical environments), but rather the type of meaning is. In particular, the distinction between truth-based meaning (e.g. asserting things like ‘I am angry’) vs. performative non-truth-based meaning (e.g. expressing one’s anger by yelling things like ‘Damn!’) has proved to be instrumental for these differences.
- It has been established that syntax and compositional semantics are modality-blind while the various levels involved during the mapping from syntax to the surface form can have modality-specific constraints; pragmatics can be sensitive to various surface distinctions, as well.

In addition, the project has explored and improved our understanding of:
- various properties of grammaticalized expression of different types of affect through means other than “words” (with focus on Russian data);
- how some of the same meaning-related phenomena emerge in non-linguistic action/output, both communicative in nature (information signs) and non-communicative (athletic movement), with direct comparison drawn across spoken communication, visual linguistic and near-linguistic communication (sign and gesture), and non-linguistic action/output.

In terms of communication/dissemination, the project has yielded:
- 2 publications in peer-reviewed journals, with 1 more manuscript currently in revision;
- 1 paper in the proceedings volume of an international peer-reviewed conference;
- 4 invited talks at various international seminars or research groups in linguistics;
- 7 presentations (5 talks and 2 posters/short presentations) at major international conferences.

In addition, the results of the project have been disseminated in the following ways:
- 2 invited public/semi-public lectures aimed at the general audience;
- 4 seminars at international summer/winter schools for audiences with highly varied backgrounds;
- 1 interview at an online magazine for linguistics enthusiasts managed by linguistics students;
- 1 introductory presentation at the international, interdisciplinary workshop ‘PerForum: Forum on Performativity in Language and Beyond’ organized by the researcher at the host institution.
- All the project activities and output (publications; presentation materials; (pre-)recorded talks, when available; teaching materials; experimental materials, raw data, and code; etc.) have been reported/linked on:
- the researcher’s personal website (https://esipova.net/);
- the webpage for the project on the host institution’s website (https://www.hf.uio.no/iln/english/research/projects/gestural-meanings/);
- the researcher’s personal social media accounts (on Facebook and Twitter).
- The international, interdisciplinary workshop organized by the researcher at the host institution as part of the project also has its own dedicated website (https://perforum.github.io/).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of this project have contributed greatly to our understanding of meaning and its expression, in particular, when it comes to the channel-independent architectural differences between truth-based and non-truth-based meaning. The theoretical implications of these findings have important consequences for the field of formal linguistics, and especially formal semantics, because they provide architectural arguments in favor of formal theories that (i) explicitly distinguish between truth-based and non-truth-based meaning at the level of semantics, (ii) do not make any distinctions based on the channel through which a given piece of meaning is expressed at the level of semantics.

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