Sammendrag
Pointing is known as an indicating gesture used in both spoken and signed language. Pointing is part of visual communication mechanisms with many functions, amongst other used to refer either deictically to present entities (as already seen in early child communication), but also used to trigger ?real space blend entities? (Liddell 2003, henceforth virtual objects). Therefore the analysis of pointing evokes - besides the question of its linguistic status and function in spoken or signed languages - another interesting question with regard to its part in communication: How can we describe the cognitive dimension and representation of what the pointing is directed at, the pointed entity? To discuss this question, we have analysed how the indicating function of pointing is represented in three different modalities. On the background of conceptual blending theory (Fauconnier 1997, Turner&Fauconnier 2003, Liddell 2003) our presentations are based on the analysis of pointing in three different communication forms: 1. Indication of objects/pointing in Norwegian Sign Language, based on data from the narrative ?Frog where are you? (Meyer 1980) involving 4 participants, 2. Indication of objects/pointing in spoken Norwegian data based on the narrative ?Frog where are you? (Meyer 1980) involving 4 participants, 3. Indication of objects/pointing in deafblind signers communication, based on data from conversations involving 4 participants using Tactile Norwegian Sign Language. This presentation will address the question how indication of objects through pointing (or other gestures) functions as a mental trigger of virtual objects as shared concepts of both signer/speaker and addressee. Pointing in a non-visual communication form is compared with pointing in spoken and signed language. The data from the deafblind?s communication are from native signers of a signed language, who became blind after having developed a signed language and consequently transformed it into a tactile version. Since tactile communication cannot be based on visual stimulus - due to the blindness of its users - the question is: what happens to the indication of objects (present or virtual) in a tactile signed language? The study tries to answer the following questions: 1. Do we find the indication of virtual objects (and present objects) in all three communication forms and how is pointing related to this? 2. How is the function of pointing with regard to the indication of present and virtual objects covered in tactile signed communication? 3. How does indication of objects/pointing in a tactile sign language compare to indication of objects/pointing in signed and spoken language communication? The presentation gives some insights in results of this work in progress and discusses the following findings: ? Pointing in our signed language data was used to trigger virtual objects as shared concepts of both signer and addressee. ? Pointing in our spoken language data did not occur to trigger virtual objects as the speaker?s concept or as shared concepts of both speaker and addressee, while other gestures were used for both purposes (e.g. gestures on the telephone (Wei 2006, Bavelas 2008)). ? Pointing in our tactile signed language data was used to trigger virtual objects as shared concepts of both signer and addressee. Deictic pointing also occurred in our data, but involved touching of the object referred to.
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