A study of gestural feedback expressions
Jens Allwood, Loredana Cerrato · 2006
Language Technology The aim of this study is to explore the realization of gestures related to verbal feedback expressions. Distributional, functional, typological and acoustic analyses of verbal and gestural feedback were carried out on spontaneous dialogues between a travel agent and some customers recorded in a travel agency in Sweden. The investigation addresses in particular the following research questions: Do gestural feedback expressions always co-occur with vocal/verbal feedback expressions? Or can they occur on their own? What is the function of feedback gestures? The results show that feedback is mostly expressed simultaneously by vocal/verbal and gestural means. The gestures accompanying verbal and vocal feedback expressions can be broadly categorized according to their function in the given context. Single head nods or jerks are the most frequent head movements accompanying feedback expressions in the Swedish dialogues we analysed. 1