西洋の初期近代では普遍言語や普遍文字への関心が高まったが，同様の趣旨としてジェスチャー (gesture) へも関心が寄せられるようになった．Kendon (73) によれば，その背景は以下の通り．
The expansion of contacts between Europeans and peoples of other lands, especially in the New World, led to an enhanced awareness of the diversity of spoken languages, and because explorers and missionaries had reported successful communication by gesture, the idea rose that gesture could form the basis of a universal language. The idea of a universal language that could overcome the divisions between peoples brought about by differences in spoken languages was longstanding. However, interest in it became widespread, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in part because, as Latin began to be replaced with vernaculars, the need for a new lingua franca was felt. There were philosophical and political reasons as well, and there developed the idea that a language should be created whose meanings were fixed, which could be written or expressed in forms that would be comprehensible, regardless of a person's spoken language. The idea that humans share a 'universal language of the hands,' mentioned by Quintilian, was taken up afresh by Bonifaccio. In his L'arte dei cenni ('The art of signs') of 1616 (perhaps the first book ever published to be devoted entirely to bodily expression) . . . , he hoped that his promotion of the 'mute eloquence' of bodily signs would contribute to the restoration of the natural language of the body, given to all mankind by God, and so overcome the divisions created by the artificialities of spoken languages.
西洋の初期近代におけるジェスチャーへの関心は，新世界での見知らぬ諸言語との接触，リンガフランカとしてのラテン語の衰退，哲学的・政治的な観点からの普遍言語への関心，「自然な肉体言語」の再評価などに裏付けられていたという解説だ．関連して「#5128. 17世紀の普遍文字への関心はラテン語の威信の衰退が一因」 ([2023-05-12-1]) の議論も思い出される．
・ Kendon, Adam. "History of the Study of Gesture." Chapter 3 of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Ed. Keith Allan. Oxford: OUP, 2013. 71--89.
西洋の初期近代では普遍言語や普遍文字への関心が高まったが，同様の趣旨としてジェスチャー (gesture) へも関心が寄せられるようになった．Kendon (73) によれば，その背景は以下の通り．
The expansion of contacts between Europeans and peoples of other lands, especially in the New World, led to an enhanced awareness of the diversity of spoken languages, and because explorers and missionaries had reported successful communication by gesture, the idea rose that gesture could form the basis of a universal language. The idea of a universal language that could overcome the divisions between peoples brought about by differences in spoken languages was longstanding. However, interest in it became widespread, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in part because, as Latin began to be replaced with vernaculars, the need for a new lingua franca was felt. There were philosophical and political reasons as well, and there developed the idea that a language should be created whose meanings were fixed, which could be written or expressed in forms that would be comprehensible, regardless of a person's spoken language. The idea that humans share a 'universal language of the hands,' mentioned by Quintilian, was taken up afresh by Bonifaccio. In his L'arte dei cenni ('The art of signs') of 1616 (perhaps the first book ever published to be devoted entirely to bodily expression) . . . , he hoped that his promotion of the 'mute eloquence' of bodily signs would contribute to the restoration of the natural language of the body, given to all mankind by God, and so overcome the divisions created by the artificialities of spoken languages.
西洋の初期近代におけるジェスチャーへの関心は，新世界での見知らぬ諸言語との接触，リンガフランカとしてのラテン語の衰退，哲学的・政治的な観点からの普遍言語への関心，「自然な肉体言語」の再評価などに裏付けられていたという解説だ．関連して「#5128. 17世紀の普遍文字への関心はラテン語の威信の衰退が一因」 ([2023-05-12-1]) の議論も思い出される．
・ Kendon, Adam. "History of the Study of Gesture." Chapter 3 of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Ed. Keith Allan. Oxford: OUP, 2013. 71--89.
昨日の記事「#4626. 現代の手話研究の成果」 ([2021-12-26-1]) に引き続き，Woll による手話言語学の歴史を参照しながら話題を提供する．手話のバイリンガリズム (bilingualism) に関する洞察とその意義についての1節を読み，非常に刺激的な示唆を得た．一度このような視点を得ると，言語研究も音声言語だけを扱って満足しているわけにはいかず，手話言語 (sign_language) はもちろん，ジェスチャー (gesture) やその他のパラ言語的要素 (paralinguistics) も含めて総合的に考察する必要があることが，よくのみ込めるようになる．
2つの音声言語が関わるバイリンガリズムについては，ここで解説するまでもなく，よく知られている．code-switching や code-mixing などの現象がしばしば話題となる．しかし，2つの手話言語が関わるバイリンガリズムについては，そのようなバイリンガルの個人や専門家でない限り，ほとんど実態を知る機会はない．さらに，1つの音声言語と1つの手話言語が関わるバイリンガルとなると，そこで何が生じているのか，想像を超える．音声言語と手話言語は文字通りに同時に実現され得るため，code-switching ならぬ "code-blending" を論じる必要があるのだ．すぐに "cross-modal", "multimodal", "multichannel" といったキーワードが思い浮かんでくる．バイリンガリズムの概念が一気に拡張された感があり，圧倒されてしまった．
参照した Woll (102--03) の1節をそのまま掲載しておきたい．
Until recently, all studies of bilingualism were studies of individuals and communities in which two spoken languages are used. With the development of research on sign languages, it has become clear that bilingualism can exist in two forms: cross-modal (or bimodal) bilingualism and unimodal bilingualism.
Unimodal bilingualism occurs when either two spoken or two sign languages are used (e.g. Irish and British Sign Language); cross-modal or bimodal bilingualism occurs when the two languages are perceived by different sensory systems and there are two different output channels; they thus exist in different modalities: one signed and one spoken. Recognition of bimodal bilingualism leads to a necessary re-evaluation of models of bilingualism. Cross-modal bilingualism differs from unimodal bilingualism with respect to the temporal sequencing of languages. Bimodal bilinguals often produce code blends, rather than code switches, producing sign and speech simultaneously when in a bilingual mode of communication . . . . Since in unimodal spoken-language bilingualism, just one production system (the vocal tract) is utilized, there is a bottleneck in processing, which has been identified both in behavioural and in neuroimaging studies. For production, this is evident in constraints on serial output: only one utterance can be produced at any one time: selection between two competing languages with respect to the common output path may impose a greater cognitive burden than selection of items within one language. For perception, similar constraints may apply---the speaker's utterances are usually processed through the ear and require serial analysis to be understood. For cross-modal bilinguals, vocal-tract (speech) and manual actions (signing) can---in principle---be processed simultaneously, as they use separate sets of articulators which are seen to be spatially separated. The processing of speech and sign, within a single proficient user of both languages, can therefore offer a unique insight into core language processes . . . .
自分の馴染みの薄い分野に少し背伸びしてみることは，とても重要だと思った次第．
・ Woll, Bencie. "The History of Sign Language Linguistics." Chapter 4 of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Ed. Keith Allan. Oxford: OUP, 2013. 91--104.
「#4623. ジェスチャーとは何か？」 ([2021-12-23-1]) で触れたように，近年，言語学とも関わりの深い分野としてジェスチャー研究が盛んになってきている．ジェスチャー研究の学史を振り返ると，19世紀までは主に言語起源論や普遍言語との関連でジェスチャーへの関心は概ね健在だったが，20世紀前半に構造主義の時代が始まると，注目されることが少なくなった．
構造主義の時代には，言語学は共時的な関心に閉じこもったため，言語起源論と結びつきの強いジェスチャーの研究も下火になったのである．また，言語学の自律性がことさらに主張されたために，心理学とのコラボレーションを前提とするジェスチャー研究は，やはり振るわなくなった．
しかし，戦後，ジェスチャー研究は復活を遂げる．背景には，言語学および関連学界における関心の移行があった．Kendon (81) が，この事情を次のように解説している．
In the first years following the Second World War, certain changes eventually produced a climate in which gesture again became relevant for theoretical issues related to language and thought. First, information theory and cybernetics, developed as solutions to problems in communication engineering, were applied in the study of communication within and between living systems, with the result that much thought and investigation came to be devoted to social communication. Not unrelated was the emergence of semiotics which, especially in North America, greatly broadened attention to sign processes, enhancing an interest in visible modes of signification, including gesture. Further, the question of language origins once again began to be taken seriously. When experiments with chimpanzees suggested that they might use gesture symbolically, as in a sign language, the idea of gesture as a first form of language was discussed once again . . . .
At the same time, in psychology, complex mental processes once again became legitimate objects of investigation. Psychologists took an interest in language and the field of psycholinguistics was established. Noam Chomsky's work was especially important. He showed the inadequacy of a behaviourist approach to language and argued that linguistics should focus on 'competence', the mental apparatus making the acquisition and use of any language possible, rather than on descriptions of specific languages. Although neither Chomsky himself nor his followers showed interest in gesture, their mentalistic orientation was influential. When, later, psycholinguists looked at gesture, they did so for what it might reveal about the mental operations of utterance production.
この引用文から，ジェスチャーへの関心を取り戻すのに貢献した，新時代の言語学と関連分野の潮流を表わすキーワードを並べれば，"information theory", "cybernetics", "semiotics", "origin_of_language", "sign_language", "Chomsky" 辺りだろうか．とりわけ，ソシュールの創始した構造主義言語学に代わってチョムスキーが装いを新たに心理主義言語学を復活させたことの意義は大きい．これにより言語と心理を結びつけてよいという前提が回復されたからである．
関連分野の学史どうしは緊密に連携しているのだと実感した．合わせて「#252. 生成文法と言語起源論の復活」 ([2010-01-04-1])，「#519. 言語の起源と進化を探る研究分野」 ([2010-09-28-1]) なども参照．
・ Kendon, Adam. "History of the Study of Gesture." Chapter 3 of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Ed. Keith Allan. Oxford: OUP, 2013. 71--89.
ジェスチャー (gesture) は言語そのものではないが，言語と同期することも多く，心理言語学や社会言語学などの分野では重要な研究対象となっている．とりわけ近年では「マルティモーダル分析」 (multimodal analysis) と呼ばれる，パラ言語的要素 (paralinguistics) を統合的に観察する手法が編み出されてきている，ジェスチャーは，言語の起源 (origin_of_language)，手話 (sign_language)，普遍言語といった話題とも接点があり，言語学との結びつきは強い．実際，目下読み進めている言語学史のハンドブックで，ジェスチャー研究の歴史に1章が割かれている．Kendon (71) より，意外と緩い「ジェスチャー」の定義・解説を引いておきたい．
'Gesture' here refers to the wide variety of ways in which humans, through visible bodily action, give expression to their thoughts and feelings, draw attention to things, describe things, greet each other, or engage in ritualized actions as in religious ceremonies. 'Gesture' includes the movements of the body, especially of the hands and arms, often integrated with spoken expression; the use of manual actions, often conventionalized, to convey something without speech; or the manual and facial actions employed in sign languages. All this is part of 'gesture', broadly conceived. Expressions such as laughing and crying, blushing, clenching the teeth in anger, and the like, or bodily postures and attitudes sustained during occasions of interaction, are less likely to be so considered. 'Gesture' is not a well-defined category. Although there is a core of phenomena, such as those mentioned, to which the term is usually applied without dispute, it is not possible to establish clear boundaries to the domain of its application, and some writers are inclined to include a much wider range of phenomena than do others.
本ブログでは「#2921. ジェスチャーの分類」 ([2017-04-26-1]) でジェスチャーの話題を取り上げたことがある程度で私も門外漢だ．そこでふと思ったのだが，歴史ジェスチャー学というものは存在するのだろうか．例えば演劇のパフォーマンス，写本図像，絵本などの資料などから，それらしい研究が成り立つのだろうか．
・ Kendon, Adam. "History of the Study of Gesture." Chapter 3 of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Ed. Keith Allan. Oxford: OUP, 2013. 71--89.
言語使用において同期するイントネーション，プロソディ，休止，視線，ジェスチャーなどのパラ言語的要素 (paralinguistics) を，統合的に観察し研究する方法論として「マルティモーダル分析」 (multimodal analysis) が提案されている．そのなかでもジェスチャーの研究が近年盛り上がりを見せているようだ．
ジェスチャーは，以下のように分類されている（以下の図と説明は，片岡，p. 85 を参照した）．
┌── エンブレム
ジェスチャー ──┤ ┌── 拍子（ビート）
└── 自発的ジェスチャー ──┤ ┌── 直示的ジェスチャー
└── 表象的ジェスチャー ──┤ ┌── 映像的ジェスチャー
└── 描写的ジェスチャー ──┤
└── 暗喩的ジェスチャー
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