Scientific projects
The collaboration between the ViCom projects "StabiGest" and "MultIS" analyzes the use and meaning of recurring gestures in longer sequences. The study focuses on the prosodic analysis of Slicing gestures and their role in emphasizing and structuring discourse.
Working on the project: Frank Kügler (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt), Pilar Prieto Vives (Universität Pompeu Fabra), Alina Gregori (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt), Paula Ginesa Sánchez Ramón (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt).
Pilot corpus study on head movements in spoken and signed languages, together with Anastasia Bauerr (University of Cologne) within the DFG Collaborative Research Program 2392 "Visual Communication" ((ViCom).
Researchers of both spoken and signed languages are beginning to investigate conventionalization processes of manual and non-manual movements, with a particular focus on the analysis of recurrent gestures. This collaborative project focuses on the study of head nodding as the most frequently produced physical signal in interactions and compares forms and functions in German spoken and signed languages.
PI of the project "Stabilization processes in gestures. A media-specific and cross-modality approach" at Sign Lab Göttingen, as part of the DFG Collaborative Research Program 2329 "„Visuelle Kommunikation. Theoretische, empirische und angewandte Perspektiven (ViCom)“.
Recurrent gestures, which are often used with speech, show functional similarities to elements of spoken and signed languages and form culturally shared repertoires of meaning, but research has so far mainly focused on spontaneous gestures. The research project investigates stabilization processes of these gestures and compares them with lexicalization and grammaticalization processes in sign languages in order to describe stable gesture families and the dynamics of gesture sequences. It aims to formulate a medium-specific and cross-modality approach that identifies common and language-specific features of gestures and signs.
Project output:
Ladewig, S. H. (2024). Recurrent Gestures: Cultural, Individual, and Linguistic Dimensions of Meaning Making. In A. Cienki (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies. Cambridge University Press, 32-55.
Ladewig, Silva H. & Lena Hotze (2023). From action to performative gesture. The Slapping movement used by children at the age of four to six, In: Semiotica2023(250), 91-116. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2022-0033
Co-coordinator in the projced Multimodal Stancetaking: Expressive Movement and Affective Stance. Political Debates in the German Bundestag and the Polish Sejm (funded by Beethoven program of the DFG/NCN).
Comparative linguistic study of cyclic gesture (English, Farsi and German) together with Laura Hirrel (University of New Mexico, USA), funded by the Viadrina International Program for Graduates
This project investigated the relationship between cyclic gestures and aspectual expression in English, German and Persian (Farsi) to explore which aspectual constructions commonly accompany cyclic gestures and whether there are cross-linguistic similarities as well as language-specific patterns. The study found that cyclic gestures are commonly used with continuous, habitual and iterative aspects in all three languages, but there is no end-to-end stability of form, although language-specific features may influence formal variability. These results support the assumption that cyclic gestures are based on experienced cyclic movements and point to an interaction of language and gesture at the grammatical level that may lead to the formation of language-specific multimodal constructions.
Project output:
3.-7. Juli 2018, ISGS 8, Kapstadt, Südafrika, The embodied nature of aspect – a cross-linguistic comparison of the cyclic gesture in English, Farsi, and German
Chapter “Grammaticaliztion in gestures” in Ladewig, Silva H. (2020). Integrating Gestures. The Dimension of Multimodality in Cognitive Grammar. Berlin/Amsterdam: De Gruyter Mouton
Post-doc and co-head of the sub-project "Meaning Emergence in Language and Gesture", which is part of the BMBF joint project Body Language of Movement and Dance: Meaning Emergence, Linguization and Therapeutic Use.
The sub-project "Meaning Emergence in Language and Gesture" investigates how physical experiences of movement are transformed into linguistic and gestural forms of expression and how these forms of expression in turn are influenced. By analyzing dance trainings and workshops using ethnographic video recordings and linguistic gesture analysis, the reconstruction of body memory and the embodiment of experiences in language and gesture are examined. This approach promotes an interdisciplinary understanding of the translation processes between movement and language and touches on important topics such as linguistic theory, embodiment research and the philosophy of body memory.
Project output:
Kolter, A., Ladewig, S. H., Summa, M., Koch, S., Fuchs, T., & Müller, C. (2012). Body memory and emergence of metaphor in movement and speech. An interdisciplinary case study. In S. Koch, T. Fuchs, M. Summa, & C. Müller (Eds.), Body Memory, Metaphor, and Movement (pp. 201-226). John Benjamins.
Müller, C., & Ladewig, S. H. (2013). Metaphors for sensorimotor experiences. Gestures as embodied and dynamic conceptualizations of balance in dance lessons. In B. Dancygier, J. Hinnell, & M. Borkrent (Eds.), Language and the creative mind (pp. 295-324). CSLI.
Project:Towards a grammar of gesture: evolution, brain, and linguistic structures, funded by the VolkswagenStiftung.
The project aims to develop a grammar of gesture based on neuropsychology and evolutionary theory that provides insights for the humanities and natural sciences. It combines linguistics, semiotics, neurology and primatology to investigate language multimodality, the neuropsychological basis of gestures and language evolution. The aim is to use linguistic and semiotic analyses to create a coherent account of the structures of gestures that will serve as a basis for further research and highlight the multimodal nature of language and its consequences for linguistics.
Development of a linguistic approach to gesture analysis
Müller, C., Ladewig, S. H., & Bressem, J. (2013). Gesture and speech from a linguistic point of view. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Teßendorf (Eds.), Body – Language – Communication. An International Handbook on Multimodality in Human Interaction. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 38.1.) (pp. 55-81). De Gruyter Mouton.
Müller, C., Bressem, J., & Ladewig, S. H. (2013). Towards a grammar of gesture: A form-based view. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body – Language – Communication. An International Handbook on Multimodality in Interaction (pp. 707–733). De Gruyter Mouton.
Development of linguistic methods of gesture analysis
Bressem, J., Ladewig, S. H., & Müller, C. (2013). A linguistic annotation system for gestures (LASG). In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Teßendorf (Eds.), Body – Language – Communication: An International Handbook on Multimodality in Human Interaction (pp. 1098-1125). De Gruyter Mouton.
Ladewig, S. H., & Bressem, J. (2013). Linguistic perspective on the notation of gesture phases. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Teßendorf (Eds.), Body – Language – Communication. An International Handbook on Multimodality in Human Interaction. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 38.1.) (pp. 1060-1079). De Gruyter Mouton.
Ladewig, S. H., & Bressem, J. (2013). New insights into the medium hand – Discovering Structures in gestures based on the four parameters of sign language. Semiotica, 197, 203–231.