A Formal Semantic Analysis of Gesture

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Alex Lascarides (Edinburgh)
• Monday 04 December 2006, 14:15-15:30
• GR-06/07, English Faculty Building.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Napoleon Katsos.

ABSTRACT : In this talk I will present a formal semantic analysis of iconic and deictic gesture. The model describes the incomplete meaning of gesture that’s derivable from its form, and the pragmatic reasoning that yields a more specific interpretation. Our formalism builds on established models of discourse interpretation to capture key insights from the descriptive literature on gesture. For example, synchronous speech and iconic gesture express a single thought, but while the form of iconic gesture is an important clue to its interpretation, the content of an unconventionalised gesture can be resolved only by linking it to its context. Specifically, we utilise discourse structure to model how context augments the content of gesture that’s revealed by its form, and dynamic semantics to model constraints on co-reference across speech and gesture, and across sequences of gesture.

This work is joint with Matthew Stone (Rutgers University)

This talk is part of the CILR workshop: Pragmatics in interfaces series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Biology
• CILR workshop: Pragmatics in interfaces
• Cambridge Institute for Language Research events
• Cambridge Neuroscience Seminars
• Cambridge talks
• Chris Davis' list
• Featured lists
• GR-06/07, English Faculty Building
• Life Science
• Life Sciences
• Neuroscience
• Neuroscience Seminars
• Neuroscience Seminars
• Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine
• dh539
• kt532's list

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.