At present, the enquiry on gesture has reached its maturity as a branch of studies which endorses... more At present, the enquiry on gesture has reached its maturity as a branch of studies which endorses a multidisciplinary approach to communication. Notwithstanding its spread into a great number of sciences (Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Ethnology, among others), in recent times little attention has been paid to the phenomena involved, as far as the linguistic point of view is concerned. In particular, the communicative function of gesture has not been addressed enough by a strictly linguistic point of view. The aim of the present volume is to exploit some methodological instruments provided by Linguistics in order to devolve this subject to its genuine pertinence. Such a project implies the use of those empirical methodological tools to which psychologists (and also linguists) are familiar. In doing so, the data presented here are analysed as pieces of information that describe behaviour, that are also an integral part of the more complex phenomenon of human communication. To the extent that a study of this kind deals with gesture, a number of theoretical linguistic questions must be solved. The major claim of this book is that gesture and speech share the same cognitive, psychological and physiological roots. In fact, gesture will here be claimed to be integral to human language, its function within human communication being as much goal-directed (MacKay, 1972) - and, subsequently, communicative – as speech. Evidence for this assumption is provided by means of experiments on hearing and deaf subjects, in addition to a review of the major findings about the use and function of gesture in situations of handicap, such as aphasia and blindness. The ideas proposed here are a result of a long speculation on the role of gesture in communicative acts, on the one hand, and with respect to language, on the other hand, matured during my decennial professorship of Non-Verbal Communication, which began at the University of Pavia and is now continuing in Italy and abroad.
The question of sex or gender discrimination in society is a wide topic that has been addressed w... more The question of sex or gender discrimination in society is a wide topic that has been addressed within diverse frameworks and fields of enquiry ranging from psychological (see e.g., Davison & Burke’s study on sex discrimination in employment) and sociological studies to law (see e.g. Rhode, 2001) and economics (see Lahey, 2008; Grove, Massey & Jetter, 2010). However, careful study of verbal and nonverbal aspects of gender discrimination in new media, and in particular in television advertising, is singularly lacking. This is unfortunate, since television remains a powerful medium both as a conveyor of artefactual encapsulations of societal mores, and as medium of large audience manipulation. (see e.g. Harris & Barlett, 1994).This work presents an analysis of both verbal and non-verbal cues of segments taken from television advertisements broadcast seen in Italy in order to reveal strong gender discrimination both as a reflection of and an influence upon social attitudes. Some political advertisements and official communications are also taken into consideration, with particular emphasis on a well known video campaign in support of the ex Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Prime Minister Mario Monti’s official press release published on the Government’s website on Janury 2nd 2012 is also taken into account.
Explanations of the phylogeny and ontogeny of gesture and speech require not only an understandin... more Explanations of the phylogeny and ontogeny of gesture and speech require not only an understanding of empirical gesture types and scenarios, but also of formal properties of the relations between visual and vocal gesture in a grammar of gesture. Initially we point out that speech (and most obviously prosody) is acoustically transduced gesture, a phonetic truism, and then develop a movement vs. gesture (MSC-GSC) model of the relations between pre-semiotic and semiotic visual and vocal gesture, and a four component linear-feature-timingrealtime (LFTR) grammar model, and apply well-tried phonetic measures to elementary beat gestures and their function in establishing rhythmic coherence, as a first step in formal evolutionary reconstruction.
Deception is a determinant social phenomenon already observed
extensively in the literature of se... more Deception is a determinant social phenomenon already observed extensively in the literature of several different research fields. This study presents the analysis of both micro-expressions and voice features in sample TV clips, in order to outline a defined research agenda on the topic.
Toward Autonomous, Adaptive, and Context-Aware …, Jan 1, 2011
This paper presents an analysis of the verbal and non-verbal cues of Conversational Agents, with ... more This paper presents an analysis of the verbal and non-verbal cues of Conversational Agents, with a special focus on REA and GRETA, in order to allow further research aimed at correcting some traits of their performance still considered unnatural by their final users. Despite the striking performance of new generation ECA, some important features make these conversational agents unreliable to the users, who usually prefer interacting with a classical computer for information retrieval. The users’ preference can be due to several factors, such as the quality of speech synthesis, or the inevitable unnaturalness of the graphics animating the avatar. Apart from the unavoidable traits that can render ECAs unnatural to the ultimate users, instances of poor synchronization between verbal and non-verbal behaviour may contribute to unfavourable results. An instance of synchronization patterns between non-verbal cues and speech is here analysed and re-applied to the basic architecture of an ECA in order to improve the ECA’s verbal and non-verbal synchronization. A proposal for future inquiry aimed at creating alternative model for the ultimate Mp4 output is also proposed, for further development in this field.
At present, the enquiry on gesture has reached its maturity as a branch of studies which endorses... more At present, the enquiry on gesture has reached its maturity as a branch of studies which endorses a multidisciplinary approach to communication. Notwithstanding its spread into a great number of sciences (Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Ethnology, among others), in recent times little attention has been paid to the phenomena involved, as far as the linguistic point of view is concerned. In particular, the communicative function of gesture has not been addressed enough by a strictly linguistic point of view. The aim of the present volume is to exploit some methodological instruments provided by Linguistics in order to devolve this subject to its genuine pertinence. Such a project implies the use of those empirical methodological tools to which psychologists (and also linguists) are familiar. In doing so, the data presented here are analysed as pieces of information that describe behaviour, that are also an integral part of the more complex phenomenon of human communication. To the extent that a study of this kind deals with gesture, a number of theoretical linguistic questions must be solved. The major claim of this book is that gesture and speech share the same cognitive, psychological and physiological roots. In fact, gesture will here be claimed to be integral to human language, its function within human communication being as much goal-directed (MacKay, 1972) - and, subsequently, communicative – as speech. Evidence for this assumption is provided by means of experiments on hearing and deaf subjects, in addition to a review of the major findings about the use and function of gesture in situations of handicap, such as aphasia and blindness. The ideas proposed here are a result of a long speculation on the role of gesture in communicative acts, on the one hand, and with respect to language, on the other hand, matured during my decennial professorship of Non-Verbal Communication, which began at the University of Pavia and is now continuing in Italy and abroad.
The question of sex or gender discrimination in society is a wide topic that has been addressed w... more The question of sex or gender discrimination in society is a wide topic that has been addressed within diverse frameworks and fields of enquiry ranging from psychological (see e.g., Davison & Burke’s study on sex discrimination in employment) and sociological studies to law (see e.g. Rhode, 2001) and economics (see Lahey, 2008; Grove, Massey & Jetter, 2010). However, careful study of verbal and nonverbal aspects of gender discrimination in new media, and in particular in television advertising, is singularly lacking. This is unfortunate, since television remains a powerful medium both as a conveyor of artefactual encapsulations of societal mores, and as medium of large audience manipulation. (see e.g. Harris & Barlett, 1994).This work presents an analysis of both verbal and non-verbal cues of segments taken from television advertisements broadcast seen in Italy in order to reveal strong gender discrimination both as a reflection of and an influence upon social attitudes. Some political advertisements and official communications are also taken into consideration, with particular emphasis on a well known video campaign in support of the ex Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Prime Minister Mario Monti’s official press release published on the Government’s website on Janury 2nd 2012 is also taken into account.
Explanations of the phylogeny and ontogeny of gesture and speech require not only an understandin... more Explanations of the phylogeny and ontogeny of gesture and speech require not only an understanding of empirical gesture types and scenarios, but also of formal properties of the relations between visual and vocal gesture in a grammar of gesture. Initially we point out that speech (and most obviously prosody) is acoustically transduced gesture, a phonetic truism, and then develop a movement vs. gesture (MSC-GSC) model of the relations between pre-semiotic and semiotic visual and vocal gesture, and a four component linear-feature-timingrealtime (LFTR) grammar model, and apply well-tried phonetic measures to elementary beat gestures and their function in establishing rhythmic coherence, as a first step in formal evolutionary reconstruction.
Deception is a determinant social phenomenon already observed
extensively in the literature of se... more Deception is a determinant social phenomenon already observed extensively in the literature of several different research fields. This study presents the analysis of both micro-expressions and voice features in sample TV clips, in order to outline a defined research agenda on the topic.
Toward Autonomous, Adaptive, and Context-Aware …, Jan 1, 2011
This paper presents an analysis of the verbal and non-verbal cues of Conversational Agents, with ... more This paper presents an analysis of the verbal and non-verbal cues of Conversational Agents, with a special focus on REA and GRETA, in order to allow further research aimed at correcting some traits of their performance still considered unnatural by their final users. Despite the striking performance of new generation ECA, some important features make these conversational agents unreliable to the users, who usually prefer interacting with a classical computer for information retrieval. The users’ preference can be due to several factors, such as the quality of speech synthesis, or the inevitable unnaturalness of the graphics animating the avatar. Apart from the unavoidable traits that can render ECAs unnatural to the ultimate users, instances of poor synchronization between verbal and non-verbal behaviour may contribute to unfavourable results. An instance of synchronization patterns between non-verbal cues and speech is here analysed and re-applied to the basic architecture of an ECA in order to improve the ECA’s verbal and non-verbal synchronization. A proposal for future inquiry aimed at creating alternative model for the ultimate Mp4 output is also proposed, for further development in this field.
This paper presents the results of an analysis of written communication strategies between adults... more This paper presents the results of an analysis of written communication strategies between adults engaged in a teacher student relationship, with a strong crosscultural component. In presenting data available from actual written communication between students and teachers of diverse cultural backgrounds and age, this work aims to highlight significant strategies for negotiation in dyadic (i.e., nonmediated) conflict resolution between adults in higher education, by means of an analysis of the linguistic, pragmatic, and cultural traits within each text. The texts are taken from written communications between teacher student dyads that are distributed as follows: a) European dyads of same nationality; b) European dyads of different nationality; and c) Chinese–European dyads. By providing a contrastive analysis of the different strategies recorded for dyadic conflict resolution and negotiation, and by elucidating the major causes of miscommunication – such as misunderstanding and wrong footing, either between European–European and European Chinese dyads or between dyads of the same nationality but different age – this research aims primarily to provide a key for the linguistic analysis of effective interpersonal and intercultural written communication in unequal relationships, such as that between teacher and student. The present study is also aimed at establishing a baseline for future linguistic research in this field.
Cross-Modal Analysis of Speech, Gestures, Gaze and …, Jan 1, 2009
The question of abstraction and metaphor in gesture is particularly controversial. Some scholars ... more The question of abstraction and metaphor in gesture is particularly controversial. Some scholars such as David McNeill, who first introduced this concept for gestures in a systematic way, think that gesture can convey abstract meaning and metaphoric thought, while others believe that gestures can only be considered to be iconic representations. This question will be addressed here by means of an analysis of cases of “on-line” abstraction in the gestural production concurrent with restatements of path descriptions.
Explanations of the phylogeny and ontogeny of gesture and
speech require not only an understandin... more Explanations of the phylogeny and ontogeny of gesture and speech require not only an understanding of empirical gesture types and scenarios, but also of formal properties of the relations between visual and vocal gesture in a grammar of gesture. Initially we point out that speech (and most obviously prosody) is acoustically transduced gesture, a phonetic truism, and then develop a movement vs. gesture (MSC-GSC) model of the relations between pre-semiotic and semiotic visual and vocal gesture, and a four component linear-feature-timingrealtime (LFTR) grammar model, and apply well-tried phonetic measures to elementary beat gestures and their function in establishing rhythmic coherence, as a first step in formal evolutionary reconstruction.
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Books by Nicla Rossini
Papers by Nicla Rossini
extensively in the literature of several different research fields. This study presents the analysis of both micro-expressions and voice features in sample TV clips, in order to outline a defined research agenda on the topic.
extensively in the literature of several different research fields. This study presents the analysis of both micro-expressions and voice features in sample TV clips, in order to outline a defined research agenda on the topic.
linguistic research in this field.
speech require not only an understanding of empirical gesture
types and scenarios, but also of formal properties of the
relations between visual and vocal gesture in a grammar of
gesture. Initially we point out that speech (and most obviously
prosody) is acoustically transduced gesture, a phonetic truism,
and then develop a movement vs. gesture (MSC-GSC) model
of the relations between pre-semiotic and semiotic visual and
vocal gesture, and a four component linear-feature-timingrealtime
(LFTR) grammar model, and apply well-tried
phonetic measures to elementary beat gestures and their
function in establishing rhythmic coherence, as a first step in
formal evolutionary reconstruction.