Hermann Ackermann, Wolfram Ziegler
Audra Ames, Sara Wielandt, Dianne Cameron, Stan Kuczaj
David Ardell, Noelle Anderson, Bodo Winter
Rie Asano, Edward Ruoyang Shi
Mark Atkinson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Andreas Baumann, Christina Prömer, Kamil Kazmierski, Nikolaus Ritt
Christian Bentz
Aleksandrs Berdicevskis, Hanne Eckhoff
Richard A. Blythe, Alistair H. Jones, Jessica Renton
Cedric Boeckx, Constantina Theofanopoulou, Antonio Benítez-Burraco
Megan Broadway, Jamie Klaus, Billie Serafin, Heidi Lyn
Jon W. Carr, Kenny Smith, Hannah Cornish, Simon Kirby
Federica Cavicchio, Livnat Leemor, Simone Shamay-Tsoory, Wendy Sandler
Zanna Clay, Jahmaira Archbold, Klaus Zuberbuhler
Katie Collier, Andrew N. Radford, Balthasar Bickel, Marta B. Manser, Simon W. Townsend
Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby, Marieke Schouwstra
Christine Cuskley, Vittorio Loreto
Christine Cuskley, Bernardo Monechi, Pietro Gravino, Vittorio Loreto
Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Sabrina Engesser, Amanda R. Ridley, Simon W. Townsend
Dankmar Enke, Roland Mühlenbernd, Igor Yanovich
Kerem Eryilmaz, Hannah Little, Bart de Boer
Nicolas Fay, Shane Rogers
Maryia Fedzechkina, Becky Chu, T. Florian Jaeger, John Trueswell
Olga Feher, Kenny Smith, Elizabeth Wonnacott, Nikolaus Ritt
Piera Filippi, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Daniel Liu Bowling, Larissa Heege, Albert Newen, Onur Güntürkün, Bart de Boer
Piera Filippi, Jenna V. Congdon, John Hoang, Daniel Liu Bowling, Stephan Reber, Andrius Pašukonis, Marisa Hoeschele, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Bart de Boer, Christopher B. Sturdy, Albert Newen, Onur GÜntÜrkÜn
Molly Flaherty, Katelyn Stangl, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Marlen Fröhlich, Paul H Kuchenbuch, Gudrun Müller, Barbara Fruth, Takeshi Furuichi, Roman M Wittig, Simone Pika
Victor Gay, Daniel Hicks, Estefania Santacreu-Vasut
Andreea Geambasu, Michelle J. Spierings, Carel ten Cate, Clara C. Levelt
Matt Hall, Russell Richie, Marie Coppola
Stefan Hartmann, Peeter Tinits, Jonas Nölle, Thomas Hartmann, Michael Pleyer
Wolfram Hinzen, Joana Rosselló
Rick Janssen, Bodo Winter, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik, Sean Roberts
Rick Janssen, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Jasmeen Kanwal, Kenny Smith, Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby
Deborah Kerr, Kenny Smith
Buddhamas Kriengwatana, Paola Escudero, Anne Kerkhoven, Carel ten Cate
Adriano Lameira, Jeremy Kendal, Marco Gamba
Molly Lewis, Michael C. Frank
Casey Lister, Tiarn Burtenshaw, Nicolas Fay, Bradley Walker, Jeneva Ohan
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Giuseppe Longobardi, Armin Buch, Andrea Ceolin, Aaron Ecay, Cristina Guardiano, Monica Irimia, Dimitris Michelioudakis, Nina Radkevich, Gerhard Jaeger
Heidi Lyn, Stephanie Jett, Megan Broadway, Mystera Samuelson
Michael Mcloughlin, Luca Lamoni, Ellen Garland, Simon Ingram, Alexis Kirke, Michael Noad, Luke Rendell, Eduardo Miranda
Adrien Meguerditchian, Damien Marie, Konstantina Margiotoudi, Scott A. Love, Alice Bertello, Romain Lacoste, Muriel Roth, Bruno Nazarian, Jean-Luc Anton, Olivier Coulon
Jérôme Michaud
Ashley Micklos
Marie Montant, Johannes Ziegler, Benny Briesemeister, Tila Brink, Bruno Wicker, Aurélie Ponz, Mireille Bonnard, Arthur Jacobs, Mario Braun
Yasamin Motamedi, Marieke Schouwstra, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Roland Mühlenbernd, Johannes Wahle
Tomoya Nakai, Kazuo Okanoya
Savithry Namboodiripad, Daniel Lenzen, Ryan Lepic, Tessa Verhoef
Alan Nielsen, Dieuwke Hupkes, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Bill Noble, Raquel Fernández
Irene M. Pepperberg, Katia Zilber-Izhar, Scott Smith
Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan, Bodo Winter, Dominic Massaro
Ljiljana Progovac
Andrea Ravignani, Tania Delgado, Simon Kirby
Terry Regier, Alexandra Carstensen, Charles Kemp
Lilia Rissman, Laura Horton, Molly Flaherty, Marie Coppola, Annie Senghas, Diane Brentari, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Gareth Roberts, Mariya Fedzechkina
Carmen Saldana, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Carlos Santana
William Schueller, Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
Catriona Silvey, Christos Christodoulopoulos
Katie Slocombe, Stuart Watson, Anne Schel, Claudia Wilke, Emma Wallace, Leveda Cheng, Victoria West, Simon Townsend
Ruth Sonnweber, Andrea Ravignani
Michelle Spierings, Carel ten Cate
Kevin Stadler, Elyse Jamieson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Monica Tamariz, Joleana Shurley
Monica Tamariz, Jon W. Carr
Bill Thompson, Heikki Rasilo
Oksana Tkachman, Carla L. Hudson Kam
Simon Townsend, Andrew Russell, Sabrina Engesser
Francesca Tria, Vittorio Loreto, Vito Servedio, S. Mufwene Salikoko
Anu Vastenius, Jordan Zlatev, Joost Van de Weijer
Tessa Verhoef, Carol Padden, Simon Kirby
Slawomir Wacewicz, Przemyslaw Zywiczynski, Arkadiusz Jasinski
Bodo Winter, David Ardell
Bodo Winter, Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan
Marieke Woensdregt, Kenny Smith, Chris Cummins, Simon Kirby
Eva Zehentner, Andreas Baumann, Nikolaus Ritt, Christina Prömer
Keywords: gesture, conventionalization, quantitative measures, sign language, language emergence, social coordination, laboratory experiments
Short description: Recording a communication game with Kinect, we measured changes in gesture that are the hallmarks of conventionalization in sign language
Abstract:
Gestures produced by users of spoken languages differ from signs produced by users of sign languages in that gestures are more typically ad hoc and idiosyncratic, while signs are more typically conventionalized and shared within a language community. To study how gestures may change over time as a result of the process of conventionalization, we designed a social coordination game to elicit repeated silent gestures from hearing nonsigners, and used Microsoft Kinect to unobtrusively track the movement of their bodies as they gestured (following Lenzen, 2015). Our approach follows both a tradition of lab experiments designed to study social coordination and transmission in the emergence of linguistic structure (Schouwstra et al., 2014) and insights from sign language research on language emergence. Newly emerging sign languages are being discovered, and even established sign languages are relatively young; it is therefore possible to observe linguistic conventionalization as it happens naturally (Senghas et al., 2005). Working with silent gesture, we were able to simulate and quantify effects of conventionalization that have been described for sign languages (Frishberg, 1975), including changes in efficiency of communication and size of articulatory space, in the laboratory.
Participants took turns either giving clues about (the Communicator) or guessing (the Guesser) items from a set of English nouns. Items were presented on a screen visible only to the Communicator, and once the Communicator confirmed that the Guesser had guessed correctly, the Guesser pressed a button to advance to the next item. Trial length was recorded as the time (ms) between button presses. Participants switched roles halfway through each of four rounds. Each item appeared once per round. In Round 1, the Communicator could use gesture and speech to ensure that both participants were familiar with the entire set of items going into Rounds 2-4, which were gesture-only. The Communicator’s movements were recorded as sequences of locations in XYZ-space using the Kinect. 10 pairs of undergraduates received course credit for participating in the study. Participant pairs had never met before, and no participant reported knowledge of a sign language.
We examined Rounds 2-4, in which the Communicator was gesturing without speech about a set of items known to both participants. We observed rapid alignment between participant pairs across the rounds; as participants became familiar with the items in the game, they correctly guessed the items at faster rates. Trial lengths (s) started longer in Round 2 (M=11.54), and became shorter in Round 3 (M=5.65) and Round 4 (M=4.39). A linear mixed-effects model showed that ROUND significantly affected TRIAL LENGTH (𝜒2=87.09, p < 0.0001), reducing trial length by about 3.57s (S.E. +/-0.37) each round.
Two additional analyses concerned volume of gesture space and distance traveled by the hands. The Kinect measurements showed that gesture spaces started larger (m3) in Round 2 (M=0.15) and became smaller in Round 3 (M=0.11) and Round 4 (M=0.10). A linear mixed-effects model showed that ROUND significantly affected GESTURE SPACE (𝜒2=51.01, p < 0.0001), reducing the volume of the gesture space by about 0.03m3 (S.E. +/- 0.004) each round. The total distance traveled by the hands also started longer (m) in Round 2 (M=11.58) and became shorter in Round 3 (M=6.22) and Round 4 (M=5.14). A linear mixed-effects model showed that ROUND significantly affected HAND TRAVEL DISTANCE (𝜒2=75.85, p < 0.0001), reducing the distance that the hands traveled by about 3.22m (S.E. +/- 0.36) each round. (Figures associated with trial length, volume of gesture space, and distance traveled by the hand are included in the supplementary materials.)
We chose an experimental setup known to result in rapid conventionalization (Scott-Phillips & Kirby, 2010), and with Kinect we were able to measure changes in gesture that are also hallmarks of conventionalization in sign language. This approach opens the door for more direct future comparisons between ad hoc gestures produced in the lab and natural sign languages in the world. By operationalizing concepts like reduction and articulatory space, which, out of necessity have been typically discussed in vague terms, we anticipate that this approach will also be beneficial for future studies of (sign) language emergence.
Citation:
Namboodiripad S., Lenzen D., Lepic R. and Verhoef T. (2016). Measuring Conventionalization In The Manual Modality. In S.G. Roberts, C. Cuskley, L. McCrohon, L. Barceló-Coblijn, O. Fehér & T. Verhoef (eds.) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference (EVOLANG11). Available online: http://evolang.org/neworleans/papers/107.html