Semantic Relationships Between Representational Gestures and Their Lexical Affiliates Are Evaluated Similarly for Speech and Text

This research examined whether the semantic relationships between representational gestures and their lexical affiliates are evaluated similarly when lexical affiliates are conveyed via speech and text. In two studies, adult native English speakers rated the similarity of the meanings of representational gesture-word pairs presented via speech and text. Gesture-word pairs in each modality consisted of gestures and words matching in meaning (semantically-congruent pairs) as well as gestures and words mismatching in meaning (semantically-incongruent pairs). The results revealed that ratings differed by semantic congruency but not language modality. These findings provide the first evidence that semantic relationships between representational gestures and their lexical affiliates are evaluated similarly regardless of language modality. Moreover, this research provides an open normed database of semantically-congruent and semantically-incongruent gesture-word pairs in both text and speech that will be useful for future research investigating gesture-language integration.