A Multimodal Corpus-based Study On Pragmatic Functions Of Chinese Kindergarten Teachers’ Hand Gestures

Hand gestures attract many linguists in the field of multimodal interaction and communication.Usually,there are two approaches to examining gestures:psycholinguistic approach and pragmatic approach.Previous research taking the latter approach has discovered that hand gestures clarify deictic expressions,function performatively,and help to organize conversations,but seldom explained the conclusions with categorial views on gestures in a systematic way.Besides,none has investigated these phenomena in Chinese kindergarten classrooms.To mend the research gaps in the combinatory field of pragmatic traditions and gesture studies,the present research answers three major research questions:(1)how gestures disambiguate deictic demonstratives of the teachers;(2)how gestures augment illocutionary forces of the teachers;(3)how gestures assist in the organization of question-initiated sequences.Each of the major research questions comprises several subquestions.To explicate the gestural contribution of disambiguating demonstratives,this research shall figure out: What types of demonstratives are produced by the teachers? What gestures co-express with these demonstratives? Are there any other types of gestures apart from pointing gestures? To explain the gestural function of augmenting illocutionary forces,this research shall make clear: What utterance types produce the illocutionary forces in question? What performative gestures are used to indicate the illocutionary forces? How are these gestures temporally aligned with the teachers’ utterances and what are their functional contributions? To elucidate the gestural assistance in organizing question-initiated sequences,the present research shall respond to: What types of questions are posed by the teachers and how do gestures contribute to them? What are the patterns of the question-initiated sequences and how do gestures function?By establishing a multimodal gestural-pragmatic corpus named Gesture Corpus of Chinese Kindergarten Teachers(GCCKT)with ELAN(EUDICO Linguistic ANnotator),frequency data and examples are extracted from the videotaped lessons obtained in a Chinese public kindergarten.A scrutinized analysis of the data yields the following findings:First of all,as a type of deictic expressions,ontological demonstratives are disambiguated by pointing/deictic gestures as well as other forms of gestures.Demonstratives of entities are disambiguated by IFE prone gestures,OH neutral gestures,object-handling gestures,and modeling gestures.Demonstratives of locations are disambiguated by IFE prone gestures and OH neutral gestures.Demonstratives of manner and status are disambiguated by enacting gestures which reproduce the action.Secondly,the teachers’ illocutionary forces of giving directions,criticizing students,and justifying authority are augmented not only by conventional,emblematic,or certain pointing gestures,but also by other forms of gestures.Gestures implement such function through being redundant to,complementary to,or independent from the accompanied utterances.PA gestures,VP gestures,OH gestures,IFE prone,up and neutral gestures,some conventional gestures and emblems augment the illocutionary force of giving directions.Other gestures,such as oscillations,touches,sudden claps or waves,are also discovered to direct the students’ behavior.IFE prone and neutral gestures,the emblem of “hush”,and oscillations augment the illocutionary force of criticizing students.Only oscillations are found to strengthen the illocutionary force of justifying authority.Finally,question-initiated sequences are found to be organized with the assistance of gestures at different sequential positions: at FPPs,gestural functions vary with question types;before SPPs,gestures help to elicit accurate responses;at SCTs,gestures visualize the fully accurate SPPs.As to the question-initiated sequences,gestures delimit the boundary,and realize other features in the sequences,such as allocating the next turn,directing or correcting the children’s unwanted behavior,and linking long narrations foreshadowing the upcoming questions at FPPs.The present research may shed light on early childhood education.Therefore,multiple pedagogical suggestions are given to the educators and practitioners based on the findings.Although several limitations are spotted during research process,it is expected that this research will enlighten future studies regarding hand gestures.