LINGUIST List 20.3493
Fri Oct 16 2009
Diss: Cognitive Science/Syntax: Harrison: 'Grammar, Gesture, and...'
Editor for this issue: Di Wdzenczny
<dilinguistlist.org>
1. Simon
Harrison,
Grammar, Gesture, and Cognition: The case of negation in English
Message 1: Grammar, Gesture, and Cognition: The case of negation in English
Date: 16-Oct-2009
From: Simon Harrison <smharrisonhotmail.com>
Subject: Grammar, Gesture, and Cognition: The case of negation in English
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Institution: Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3
Program: English linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2009
Author: Simon Harrison
Dissertation Title: Grammar, Gesture, and Cognition: The case of negation in English
Linguistic Field(s):
Cognitive Science
Syntax
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Aliyah Morgenstern
Jean-Rémi Lapaire
Ellen Fricke
Adam Kendon
Cornelia Müller
Dissertation Abstract:
In this thesis, I examine the way English speakers gesture when they negateand I argue that grammar and gesture are linked.
With an audiovisual corpus of conversations among Anglophones, I identifynine recurrent gestures of negation and analyse their forms, theircontexts-of-use, their relation to grammatical negation, and theirorganisation with speech.
In negative speech acts, I show how gestures of negation are entwined withgrammatical, semantic, and pragmatic phenomena, such as node and scope ofnegation, inherent negation, and cumulative negation. I argue thatdiscourse context and type of grammatical negation determine which gesturesof negation speakers use and how they use them. I also show that gestureexhibits the universal tendencies in language to express negation early andfrequently in a negative sentence. On a broader level, I borrow tools fromcognitive linguistics to account for the how speakers integrate grammaticaland gestural aspects of negation into multimodal negative speech acts.
By establishing that negation receives multimodal expression and by drawingparallels between conventional forms and structures across modalities, thisthesis builds on previous investigations of gestural negation, challengestraditional understandings of negation, and takes a step towardestablishing a multimodal grammar.
A preliminary chapter provides a methodology for collecting, transcribing,and analysing multimodal data, while a final chapter supports the thesis byaddressing the grammar and gesture of three other linguistic notions:progressivity, epistemic modality, and focus.
Overall, this thesis offers an in-depth multimodal analysis of grammaticalnotions in English, with a focus on negation, and establishes a linkbetween grammar, gesture, and cognition.
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