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Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Sources of a Handshape Distinction Expressing Agentivity
Author(s) -
Brentari Diane,
Renzo Alessio Di,
Keane Jonathan,
Volterra Virginia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
topics in cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.191
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1756-8765
pISSN - 1756-8757
DOI - 10.1111/tops.12123
Subject(s) - linguistics , gesture , psychology , cognition , event (particle physics) , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
In this paper the cognitive, cultural, and linguistic bases for a pattern of conventionalization of two types of iconic handshapes are described. Work on sign languages has shown that handling handshapes (H‐ HS s: those that represent how objects are handled or manipulated) and object handshapes (O‐ HS s: those that represent the class, size, or shape of objects) express an agentive/non‐agentive semantic distinction in many sign languages. H‐ HS s are used in agentive event descriptions and O‐ HS s are used in non‐agentive event descriptions. In this work, American Sign Language ( ASL ) and Italian Sign Language ( LIS ) productions are compared (adults and children) as well as the corresponding groups of gesturers in each country using “silent gesture.” While the gesture groups, in general, did not employ an H‐ HS /O‐ HS distinction, all participants (signers and gesturers) used iconic handshapes (H‐ HS s and O‐ HS s together) more often in agentive than in no‐agent event descriptions; moreover, none of the subjects produced an opposite pattern than the expected one (i.e., H‐ HS s associated with no‐agent descriptions and O‐ HS s associated with agentive ones). These effects are argued to be grounded in cognition . In addition, some individual gesturers were observed to produce the H‐ HS /O‐ HS opposition for agentive and non‐agentive event descriptions—that is, more Italian than American adult gesturers. This effect is argued to be grounded in culture . Finally, the agentive/non‐agentive handshape opposition is confirmed for signers of ASL and LIS , but previously unreported cross‐linguistic differences were also found across both adult and child sign groups. It is, therefore, concluded that cognitive, cultural, and linguistic factors contribute to the conventionalization of this distinction of handshape type.