Processes of Stabilization in Gestures. A Media-specific and Cross-modal Approach

Project Participants

Silva Ladewig

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Dr. Silva Ladewig
(Principal Investigator)

University of Göttingen
silva.ladewig@uni-goettingen.de

Silva Ladewig is interested in the embodied nature of language. For this she studies multimodality from a linguistic perspective in the fields of Pragmatics, Cognitive Grammar, Cognitive Semantics and Dynamic Multimodal Communication. Of special interest are stabilization processes in gestures and the interface between gesture and sign which she explores now at the Sign Language Lab at the University of Göttingen. Silva received her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the European University Viadrina in 2012 where she has worked in many interdisciplinary projects on the integration of gesture and speech, the linguistic potential of gestures, and the dynamics of multimodal metaphors.

Selected publications

Project Description

Recurrent gestures are conventionalized, co-speech gestural forms that show functional similarities with linguistic elements of spoken and signed languages. They are specialized in pragmatic meaning making and form culturally shared repertoires. Although their study may offer insights into stabilization processes of human expressive modes, research on gestures has largely focused on spontaneously created forms. This project fills this research gap. Based on existing corpora of recurrent gestures and on additional data, different processes of stabilization in gestures will be explored. In a second step, the identified routes of stabilization in gestures will be compared with lexicalization processes and grammaticalization processes in signs of sign language. In doing so, the project concentrates on two hitherto understudied facets of recurrent gestures, i.e., (1) the emergent stabilization of gesture families and (2) the temporal and functional dynamics of stabilized gesture sequences. By addressing these two aspects of recurrent gestures and by comparing them to the evolution and structure of signs, the project formulates 3) a media-specific and cross-modal approach to stabilization processes in gestures and signs defining characteristics that both modalities share and those which are linguistic.  

Project Activities

Publications

Project publications

Bauer, A., Trettenbrein, P. C., Amici, F., Ćwiek, A., Fuchs, S., Krause, L., Kuder, A., Ladewig, S., Schulder, M., Schumacher, P., Spruijt, D., Zulberti, C. & Schulte-Rüther, M. (2025). Data Collection in Multimodal Language and Communication Research: A Flexible Decision Framework. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/42tud_v1 

Ladewig, S. H. (2025). Embodied sharpness: exploring the slicing gesture in political talk shows, In: Frontiers in Psychology 15. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1494192

Ladewig, S. H. (2024). Recurrent gestures. Cultural, individual, and linguistic dimensions of meaning. In: Alan Cienki (Hg.), The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies. Cambridge University Press. 32-55. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108638869.003

Zulberti, C., Amici, F., Bressem, J., Ladewig, S. H., Oña, L., & Liebal, K. (2024). ChimpLASG: a form-based approach to the classification of chimpanzee gestures. Folia Primatologica, 95, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1163/14219980-950101AB

ViCom-related publications

Brône, G., Feyaerts, K., Ladewig, S.H, & Zima, E. (2024).  Stance-taking in Embodied and Virtual Interaction. Special Issue of Frontiers in Psychology. Special Issue of Frontiers in Psychology.

Ladewig, Silva H. (in press). Iconicity in co-speech gestures. In: Olga Fischer, Kimi Akita and Pamela Perniss (Eds.) Handbook on Iconicity in Language. Oxford University Press.

Ladewig, Silva H. (in press/2025). Neue Strömungen in der Gestik- und Multimodaltitäsforschung, In: Linguistische Berichte.

Ladewig, Silva H. & Dorothea Horst (2024). Media as Processes of Doing and Perceiving. How a yoga pose in an online tutorial takes on meaning as felt sensation. In: Jan Georg Schneider & Martin Luginbühl (Eds.) Media as Procedures of Communication. John Benjamins, 158–187. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.348.07lad

Ladewig, Silva H. & Jana Bressem (2024). Gesture as a means for communicating and understanding embodied conceptualizations in second language interactions. In: Amanda Brown & Søren W. Eskildsen (Eds.) Multimodality across Epistemologies in Second Language Research. New York & London: Routledge, 22-35. 10.4324/9781003355670-3

Ladewig, S. H. & Hotze, L. (2023). From action to performative gesture. The Slapping movement used by children at the age of four to six, In: Semiotica2023(250), 91-116. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2022-0033  

Conference contributions

Bauer, Anastasia & Silva H. Ladewig Recurrent Head Gestures: A Cross-Modal Comparison of Pragmatic Functions in Spoken German and DGS (German Sign Language), poster to be presented at the 10th International Conference of the ISGS (ISGS 2025 Nijmegen, Netherlands, July 2025.

Ladewig, Silva H. Cyclic gestures in sequences in German political talk shows, to be presented at the 10th International Conference of the ISGS (ISGS 2025 Nijmegen, Netherlands, July 2025.

Silva, Vinicius Macuch & Ladewig, Silva .H. Marking contrast multimodally: the co-occurrence of ‘eigentlich’ and Palm Up gestures in spoken German, to be presented at the 10th International Conference of the ISGS (ISGS 2025 Nijmegen, Netherlands, July 2025.

Zulberti, Chiara, Federica Amici, Katja Liebal, Jana Bressem, Silva Ladewig & Linda Oña. ChimpLASG: a form-based approach to the classification of chimpanzee gestures, presented at EFP 2024, Lausanne, Switzerland, June2024.

Ladewig, Silva H. & Lena Hotze. Taking stance with the Slapping movement. Inter-affectivity in interactions among children, presented at the IPrA, Brussels, Belgium, June 2023.

Teaching

Summer school courses

Ladewig, S.H. How meaning emerges in gestures. A cognitive-semiotic approach, Goettingen. Course taught at DGfS summer school, August 2024

Events

Co-organizaiton of the panel “A multi-approach study of recurrent gestures and linguistic particles across lanuages” at the 10th International Conference of the ISGS (ISGS 2025), co-organized with Simon Harrison and Suwei Wu.

Co-organization of the workshop “Negation in Gesture and Sign“ at the 10th International Conference of the ISGS (ISGS 2025), co-organized with Simon Harrison and Suwei Wu.

Co-organization of the workshop “Multimodal prominence” with Frank Kügler, Pielar Prieto, Susanne Fuchs, Alexandra Cwiek, Katja Liebal, Frederica Amici, May 2025

Co-organization of the workshop”Dimensions of Iconicity in the Visual Modality” mit Markus Steinbach,Nina-Kristin Meister,Mailin Antomo,Yuqiu Chen, Thomas Finkbeiner, Patrick Trettenbein (University of Göttingen), February 2024

Short-term Collaborations

Bottom-up formal-based approaches for the identification of gesture types in chimpanzees, Chiara Zulberti, Katja Liebal and Federica Amici, Jana Bressem (external partner, TU Chemnitz), and Silva Ladewig (2023)

Comparing a recurrent non-manual movement in spoken and signed languages, Anastasia Bauer & Silva Ladewig (2023)

Exploring multimodal prominence in Slicing gesture sequences, Frank Kügler and Alina Gregori, Pilar Prieto and Paula Ginesa Sánchez Ramón, and Silva Ladewig (2024)

Multimodal markers of pragmatic contrast, Vinicius Macuch Silva & Silva Ladewig (2025)

Outreach

Instagram & TikTok Channel @gestikinsights

Blog: https://silvaladewig.de/en/scicomm/#blog

01/2024: WDR5 „Neugier genügt“, Exploring the Meaning of the Index Finger

09/2024: Explorer magazine: “Thumbs up! But be careful, it could be misunderstood. Tips on (in)appropriate hand signals“

05/2024: ZDFinfo online, Feature on intercultural gesture use