Beattie Geoffrey, Shovelton Heather
Department of Psychology, University of Manchester, UK.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2002 Sep;41(Pt 3):403-17. doi: 10.1348/014466602760344287.
When people talk, they frequently make movements of their arms and hands, some of which appear connected with the content of the speech and are termed iconic gestures. Critical to our understanding of the relationship between speech and iconic gesture is an analysis of what properties of talk might give rise to these gestures. This paper focuses on two such properties, namely the familiarity and the imageability of the core propositional units that the gestures accompany. The study revealed that imageability had a significant effect overall on the probability of the core propositional unit being accompanied by a gesture, but that familiarity did not. Familiarity did, however, have a significant effect on the probability of a gesture in the case of high imageability units and in the case of units associated with frequent gesture use. Those iconic gestures accompanying core propositional units variously defined by the properties of imageability and familiarity were found to differ in their level of idiosyncrasy, the viewpoint from which they were generated and their overall communicative effect. This research thus uncovered a number of quite distinct relationships between gestures and speech in everyday talk, with important implications for future theories in this area.
人们交谈时，常常会摆动胳膊和手部，其中一些动作似乎与言语内容相关，被称为标志性手势。对于我们理解言语与标志性手势之间的关系而言，关键在于分析言语的哪些特性可能引发这些手势。本文聚焦于两个这样的特性，即手势所伴随的核心命题单元的熟悉度和形象性。研究表明，总体而言，形象性对核心命题单元伴随手势出现的概率有显著影响，而熟悉度则不然。然而，对于具有高形象性的单元以及与频繁使用手势相关的单元，熟悉度对手势出现的概率有显著影响。研究发现，那些伴随由形象性和熟悉度特性各异定义的核心命题单元的标志性手势，在其独特性水平、产生的视角以及整体交际效果方面存在差异。因此，这项研究揭示了日常交谈中手势与言语之间一些颇为不同的关系，对该领域未来的理论具有重要意义。
