A multimodal approach to polysemy: the senses of touch
| Autor: | Irene Bolumar Martínez, Daniel Alcaraz Carrión, Javier Valenzuela Manzanares |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2024 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Language and Cognition, Vol 16, Pp 1697-1717 (2024) |
| Druh dokumentu: | article |
| ISSN: | 1866-9808 1866-9859 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/langcog.2024.23 |
| Popis: | This study investigated whether speakers use multimodal information (speech and gesture) to differentiate the physical and emotional meanings of the polysemous verb touch. We analyzed 302 hand gestures that co-occurred with this perception verb. For each case, we annotated (1) the meaning of touch (physical vs. emotional), (2) the gesture referent speakers physically touched (other-touch vs. self-touch), (3) the personal pronoun following the verb and (4) if they used intensifiers and negation. There were three main findings. First, we have seen that when speakers express the physical meaning, they are likely to reach an external referent (other-touch), but when they imply the emotional meaning, they tend to touch their own body (self-touch). Second, the most frequent co-speech gesture (chest-touching gesture) was associated with the emotional meaning, uncovering the metaphor the heart is container for emotions. Third, this study showed that the physical meaning of touch usually coexists with a wide variety of personal pronouns and negation words; in contrast, the emotional meaning of touch occurs primarily with the pronoun me and it is usually modified by intensifiers. Thus, speakers use both speech and gesture to differentiate the meanings of the polysemous verb touch. |
| Databáze: | Directory of Open Access Journals |
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