Adam Kendon b. 1934
Adam Kendon, zoologist and experimental psychology, worked
on face-to-face interaction, sign languages, and gesture becoming an authority
on the subjects and the history of their study. His observed how these
nonverbal signals relate to spoken language, his focus including work on
Australian Aboriginal sign languages. In developing a general framework for
understanding gestures he was able to apply the same rigorous semiotic analysis
that had previously been applied to spoken language. According to Kendon
gestures are as important as speech as a representative of meaning and has a
place in the theories of language origin. He developed a Gesture Continuum
defining five different kinds of gestures. In his analysis of everyday,
conversations he demonstrated the varied role of gestures and how they vary
according to cultural and language differences. Kendon’s analysis of
conversation also showed how eye movements affect the flow of conversation
signalling turn-taking, including that people look nearly twice as much when
listening than speaking.
Read Visible Action as Utterance (2004) Cambridge
University Press