Communication consists not only of spoken words and phrases.
We also convey important information by gesturing with our arms, hands and face.
Visual communication, a field so far scarcely studied by theoretical
linguistics, is the focus of a new Priority Programme of the German Research
Foundation coordinated by Goethe University Frankfurt. Read more in the current
issue of “Forschung Frankfurt" entitled “In motion".
FRANKFURT. How
gestures and facial expressions can underline, supplement and modify the
meaning of words and phrases is something that several disciplines at Goethe
University Frankfurt are exploring. Linguistics professor Cornelia Ebert is
interested in how the contribution of the meaning of gestures can be modelled.
Until recently, visual contributions to meaning were not dealt with in formal
linguistics, but instead first and foremost in communication sciences as well
as in rhetoric, semiotics and psychology.
Together with Professor Markus Steinbach,
sign language researcher at the University of Göttingen, Ebert has successfully
applied for a Priority Programme of the German Research Foundation and is
responsible for its coordination. The objective is to bring together existing
findings from various disciplines and link them with linguistics. You can read
about the research questions that the programme will address in the latest
issue of Forschung Frankfurt, the Science Magazine of Goethe University
Frankfurt, which is dedicated to the topic of motion.
In other articles, scientists from Goethe
University Frankfurt report on their research projects related to various
aspects of motion, for example how they teach computers to recognise different
movements such as “cutting" or “waving", how ADHD can affect adults too or how
two movements in quantum physics are superimposed, each of which only occurs
with a certain probability. Other articles explore, for example, how
smartphones, which are almost ubiquitous, are changing film as a medium or how
sports clubs can foster the integration of immigrants.
Journalists can order the current
English-language issue of Forschung Frankfurt (2/2021) free of charge from:
ott@pvw.uni-frankfurt.de
All articles are available online at
www.forschung-frankfurt.de (then go to EN)
or https://tinygu.de/ENForschungFrankfurt
