From gesture to Sign? : An exploration of the effects of communicative pressure, interaction and time on the process of conventionalization
This study explored how non-signers exploit their gestural repertoire during a process of handshape conventionalisation. We examined how communicative context, interaction and time affect the transition from iconically-motivated representations to linguistically-organised, generalised forms. 100 non-signers undertook a silent gesture-elicitation task, describing pictures in one of four conditions:
