Lab 3: Gestures and Communicationdue: 06/08/12 at 10:00Am

Lab 3: Gestures and CommunicationDue: 06/08/12 at 10:00am

Name:ID#

Introduction

They may often go unnoticed, but humans tend to perform hand-based gestures simultaneously with spoken speech. In this lab, you are going to watch others as they speak (either to you or to others) and describe three of the hand-based gestures that they use during their speech. You are then going to analyze these gestures just like we analyzed speech, sign language, and animal communication systems in class to determine exactly what the properties of this gestural system are.

Part 1: Observe three gestures during the spontaneous speech of another human being

Watch the hands of your friends as they speak to you, or even of your friends as they speak to another friend. In the space below, describe three of the hand gestures that you have observed (i.e., describe the shape of the hand and the motion that was made) as well as the words that were spoken with the gesture.

WordDescription of the gesture

1. G1: ______

2. G2: ______

3. G3: ______

Part 2: Describe the meaning of each gesture. It may help to describe the meaning of the sentence that was spoken, and how the gesture supports (or even disambiguates) that meaning.

4. Meaning of G1:

5. Meaning of G2:

6. Meaning of G3:

Part 3: For each gesture, discuss whether the gesture is referring to any objects or entities in the world (for example, a pointing gesture may indicate the person or thing being pointed at). If it is referring to objects/entities, please list them for each gesture. If it is not, please tell me why you think that there are no referents for the gesture.

7. G1:

8. G2:

9. G3:

Part 4: Were the referents present and “visible” at the time of the conversation, or were they not-present/not-visible at the time of the conversation. Note that audible sounds count as “present/visible”. So a dog that is barking is present/visible if you can hear the sound of the bark.

10. G1:

11. G2:

12. G3:

Part 5: Combining gestures

13. Combine gesture 1 and gesture 2 in the order G1-G2. Act it out for yourself. Please list all of the possible meanings of this combination:

14. Combine gesture 1 and gesture 2 in the order G2-G1. Act it out for yourself. Please list all of the possible meanings of this combination:

15.Combine gesture 1 and gesture 3 in the order G1-G3. Act it out for yourself. Please list all of the possible meanings of this combination:

16. Combine gesture 1 and gesture 3 in the order G3-G1. Act it out for yourself. Please list all of the possible meanings of this combination:

17. Combine gesture 2 and gesture 3 in the order G2-G3. Act it out for yourself. Please list all of the possible meanings of this combination:

18. Combine gesture 2 and gesture 3 in the order G3-G2. Act it out for yourself. Please list all of the possible meanings of this combination:

19. Would you classify the combination of hand gestures in speech as a semantic soup system, a linear order system, or a hierarchical system? Briefly explain your answer in one or two sentences.

Part 6:Comparing gestures, animal communication, and human languages

20. Based on the evidence that you’ve collected in this lab and seen in the lectures, would you classify the gestures that we use during speech as most similar to (a) spoken human languages, (b) signed human languages, or (c) animal communication systems. Explain your answer in a brief paragraph (no more than 5 or 6 sentences).

Submitting your work: Please rename this document to be IDNUMBER.lab3.docx, and submit using the EEE dropbox for Lab3. Assignments are due by 10am on 06.08.12 (which is also the last day of class).