Défense de thèse en Langues et lettres | Alysson Lepeut
Framing Language Through Gesture. Palm-up, Index Finger-Extended Gestures, and Holds in French-Speaking and Signing Belgium | Défense accessible à distance en direct via cette adresse : https://medias.unamur.be/lives/live-these-alysson-lepeut/
Date : 01/10/2020 17:00 - 01/10/2020 20:00
Lieu : Auditoire Pierre Maon - D01 - Fac de Droit (places limitées, réservation nécessaire : alysson.lepeut@unamur.be)
Orateur(s) : Alysson Lepeut
Organisateur(s) : Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, Département de Langues et littératures françaises et romanes
La défense aura lieu en présentiel (en français et en LSFB). Toutefois, les places étant limitées, il est nécessaire de s'inscrire par mail (alysson.lepeut@unamur.be) avant le 29/09. La séance sera accessible à distance en direct via cette adresse : https://medias.unamur.be/lives/live-these-alysson-lepeut/
This dissertation has explored the gesture-sign relationship by investigating interactional aspects of specific gestural forms in spontaneous dyadic face-to-face conversations of four signers and eight speakers in the southern part of Belgium, comparing French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB) and spoken French (Belgian variety, BF).
Moving beyond the traditional treatments of gesture in spoken and signed languages in favor of a comparative study of kinesic expression in sign and in gesture, this study has conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses of specific embodied strategies in discourse, namely, Palm-Up, Index Finger Extended Gesture, holds, and their concurrent gaze directions, and compare their usage in signed and spoken conversations. With a pragmatic perspective on language and adopting methodologies of corpus-based approaches to language data, this research has shown the different strategies and choices that signers and speakers perform through these gestural markers depending on contextual and interactional demands, allowing them to regulate the interpersonal relationships with addressees and attend to the contingencies of the unfolding talk itself.
The results have unveiled a number of intra- and inter-linguistic differences for the frequencies as well as similarities as for the interactive functions of the different gestural markers under study. While PU frequencies do not show any a clear-cut distinction between both languages, IFE-Gs do establish a systematic distinction between LSFB and BF, which can partly be due to the linguistic, more conventionalized, nature that is more attested for IFE-G in SL than in SpL. Nevertheless, when analyzed for their respective interactive functions in spoken and signed discourses, both carry similar roles. LSFB signers mainly use PU and IFE-G for turn-taking regulating purposes (including feedback expressions) while BF speakers prefer them to manipulate the content of the information conveyed on the palm of their hands and through their index finger (for delivery and common ground purposes). Moreover, reduced forms of both, PU and IFE-G have been attested in the data, signaling particular interactional moves on the part of language users. As far as manual holds are concerned, the findings bring further evidence that they are not mere insignificant moments of gestural and signing excursion. Rather, they work as efficient and effective tools deployed by hearing and deaf participants to achieve a number of pragmatic goals during the course of their conversations.
Rather than opposing gesture and sign from the beginning, this study has shown that, when in dialogic situations, interactants, whether deaf or hearing, make choices and continuously deploy bodily behaviors that correspond to their needs (and their addressees’) as the interaction evolves. The current gestural items represent one of such bodily behaviors that are produced in ways that are sensitive to the interactional and linguistic contexts.
This study has revealed how considering gesture in spoken discourse on a par with signed language, favoring commonalities rather than exacerbating differences, reinforces the argument for gesture to be part of linguistic activities, and as to what it means for spoken and signed languages to be gestural languages.
Contact :
Laurence Meurant
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081724143
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laurence.meurant@unamur.be
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