FOCUSING IN SPOKEN DESCRIPTIVE DISCOURSE: A STUDY OF VISUAL PERCEPTION, SPEECH AND GESTURES

FOCUSING IN SPOKEN DESCRIPTIVE DISCOURSE: A STUDY OF VISUAL PERCEPTION, SPEECH AND GESTURES

Author:  Iriskhanova Olga K., Prokofyeva O.N.

Affiliation:  Moscow State Linguistic University Institute of Linguistics

Abstract: 
The paper presents the results of an empirical study of Russian spoken descriptive discourse that focuses on the interplay between visual, linguistic, and gestural focusing. The experiment which involves eye-tracking analyses has revealed strong positive correlation between the duration of fixation of the participants on visual stimuli (the objects in a painting) and their profiling via speech and gesture during the subsequent oral description of the painting. In terms of focusing, the gestures in the descriptive discourse are mainly used for orientation and resonance.

Keywords:  focusing  ◆  descriptive discourse  ◆  multimodality  ◆  orienting gestures  ◆  resonating gestures

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Pages:  80-87