A Study of Hand Gestures in Adult Speakers of Malayalam

Abstract

It is known that people of different cultures and linguistic backgrounds gesture. This study aimed to understand the nature of co-speech gestures in Malayalam speaking individuals, in terms of the types of gestures produced, frequency and patterns of occurrence, and linguistic encoding of gestures. 6 native speakers of Malayalam within the age range of 20-25 (3 males and 3 females) were selected and were instructed to describe four pictures to a listener who was unaware of these scenes. The results indicated that all participants used gestures, though there were individual variations seen. Almost all individuals were either unimanual or bimanual while speaking. Most of the gestures were produced in synchrony with the ongoing speech. It was also seen that these gestures represented nouns, action words, prepositions and adjectives.