Multimodality, Iconicity and the Common Ground: The Status of Speech and Gesture (A04)

• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 538184825

Project A4 uses experimental methods to investigate the at-issue status of different forms of modification. We compare modification in the visual domain (e.g., speech-accompanying gestures) and in the domain of speech (e.g., adverbials, verbs, ideophones). We focus on the question of how these different information types affect entry into and retrieval from the common ground. Based on the experimental data, the project will contribute to a formal semantic model of the common ground that takes modality, iconicity, and at-issueness into account.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1718: Common Ground: Cognition - Grammar - Communication
• Applicant Institution: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
• Project Heads: Dr. Kathryn Barnes; Professorin Dr. Cornelia Ebert; Professorin Dr. Britta Stolterfoht