The Hands, Head, and Brow: a Sociolinguistic Study of Māori Gesture
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The hands, head, and brow: A sociolinguistic study of Māori gesture James Gruber, New Zealand Institute of Language Brain and Behaviour, [email protected] NZILBB University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140 New Zealand Jeanette King, Aotahi School of Māori and Indigenous Studies & New Zealand Institute of Language Brain and Behaviour [email protected] University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140 New Zealand Jen Hay, New Zealand Institute of Language Brain and Behaviour & Department of Linguistics, University of Canterbury [email protected] NZILBB University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140 New Zealand Lucy Johnston, Vice-Chancellor’s Office, University of Canterbury & New Zealand Institute of Language Brain and Behaviour [email protected] University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140 New Zealand Dr. James Gruber is a post-doctoral research fellow in the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University in 2011. His research examines speech, gesture, and their interaction. Associate Professor Jeanette King has taught in the Māori language programme at the University of Canterbury since 1989. She is on the Management Group of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour (NZILBB) where she leads the Bilingualism theme. Jeanette has published on many areas relating to the Māori language, including, sound change in the Māori language over time, Māori language revitalisation initiatives, changes in the phrasal lexicon of Māori, Māori English, and aspects of second language acquisition of Māori, including the use of metaphor and aspects of motivation. Jennifer Hay received her PhD in linguistics from Northwestern University in 2000. She is now a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Canterbury, and is the Director of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour. She has published widely on issues relating to language variation and change, speech production and perception, laboratory phonology and lexical representation. Lucy Johnston graduated with BA (Hons) in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Bristol. She has been at the University of Canterbury since 1994. She is Dean of Postgraduate Research and Professor of Psychology and chairs the NZ Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies and the Universities NZ Scholarships Committee. She was on the inaugural management group of NZILBB. Her research expertise is in social perception and nonverbal communication. She received a University Teaching Award in 2008 and in 2004 held a Distinguished Visiting Professor position at the University of Connecticut. Abstract This paper examines the speech-accompanying gesture and other kinesic behaviour of bilingual English-Māori and monolingual English speakers in New Zealand. Physical expression has long been regarded a key component of Māori artistic and spoken performance, as well as in personal interactions. This study asks (1) if there are gestures more common to or exclusively employed by the Māori population of New Zealand and (2) if their frequency and form is influenced by speaking Māori? More generally, the study considers the effect of different languages on gesture within the same speaker. Four bilingual Māori and six monolingual New Zealanders of European ancestry were recorded providing similar narrations. We report three differences between the speaker groups: a prevalence among Māori speakers for flat-handed motion gestures, gestures of the head, and eyebrow flashes. The findings highlight the probabilistic nature of culturally-grounded variation in gesture and the appropriateness of sociolinguistic approaches to their study. Keywords: Gesture; eyebrows; non-verbal behaviour; Māori; cross-cultural comparison. 1 Background Speech accompanying gesture has been shown to differ across cultural and linguistic groups in a variety of ways (dating back to at least Efron, 1972; reviewed in Kita, 2009). A culturally-grounded understanding of directional and spatial reference is one such distinction that shapes one’s use of iconic and deictic gestures (Levinson, 1996; Levinson, 2003; Wilkins, 2003). In addition to hand gestures, other kinesic cues have been shown to guide interactions and discourse in a way that can be highly culture- specific, such as the higher frequency of head nods employed by Japanese speakers and listeners (Maynard, 1986; Maynard, 1990; Kita & Ide, 2007). Another oft-mentioned difference is that languages or cultures may exhibit a “high” or “low” gesture frequency (Goldin-Meadow & Saltzman, 2000; Pika, Nicoladis, & Marentette, 2006; So, 2010), though little quantitative data as yet supports this contention. Distinctions that are solely linguistic in origin have also been reported (Duncan, 1996; McNeill & Duncan, 2000; Kita & Özyürek, 2003; Gullberg, 2011). In one example, McNeill & Duncan (2000) describe how grammatical properties of English, Mandarin, and Spanish affect the implementation of motion gestures by their respective speakers. In many cases though, linguistic and cultural influences are difficult to tease apart. Kendon (2004, pp. 349) states, it is “unclear how far differences (in gesture) may be due to differences in the languages spoken or how far they may be due to wider differences in customs...We need more comparative studies to explore this issue.” This paper represents such a study. We explore the cultural and linguistic bases for speech-accompanying kinesics in the Māori population of New Zealand. Māori present an informative case study for multiple reasons, detailed in the following section. Our research seeks to address two main questions. 1. Are there gestures or gestural features which are more common to or exclusively employed by Māori as opposed to Pākehā (New Zealanders of European ancestry)? 2. If so, are the form and frequency of Māori-associated gestures influenced by speaking Te Reo Māori, “the Māori language”? To investigate, we conducted sociolinguistic interviews with bilingual Māori men and monolingual Pākehā men. From these interviews, we focus on one portion of the interview wherein the participants retold the events of a cartoon stimulus. Our analytic approach focuses on the gestural articulators (the hands or otherwise), their form, and probabilistic tendencies in their use. For likely sources of variation between Māori and Pākehā speakers, prior impressions from other authors (e.g. Metge & Kinloch, 1978) and the intuitions of New Zealand-based researchers led us to emphasise certain handshapes in our inquiry and to consider a range of speech-accompanying behaviours beyond those performed manually (namely, the head, the eyes, the eyebrows, the torso). We present three sets of findings in this paper. One, we describe the use of manual gestures and handshapes, concentrating on a specific path-depictive gesture preferred by the Māori speakers. Two, we describe gestures produced by the head and their use by Māori speakers. Finally, we consider raising of the eyebrows, a widely-noted Māori feature and stereotype. 1.1 Māori and the Māori physical world There are good reasons to suspect that communicative expression for Māori differs from the majority population of New Zealand, and that some of this difference is manifest in movement of the hands, head, face, and eyes. Matthews (2004) describes the distinct physicality evident in the culturally-prominent practice of kapa haka (Māori performing arts). The art of whaikōrero (oratory) similarly has a strong visuo-physical component highlighted by specific gaits and expressions of the face and body (Rewi, 2010). Most importantly, there is a long history of academic and lay observations noting a distinct Māori countenance and non-verbal code (Best, 1924; Metge & Kinloch, 1978; Metge, 2005). Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand, descendants of Polynesian settlers to the islands from around CE 1300. Following European contact, conflicts and warfare characterised an early period of settler migration and colonization (1815-1900), which in turn gave way to institutionalised marginalisation of the Māori population in the 20th Century (Walker, 2004). Though problems persist, such as a proportionally higher demographic of Māori living in poverty or lacking access to health and human services (Ministry of Social Development, 2010), the past few decades have seen a revitalization of national interest and pride in the Māori heritage of the islands, amongst both Māori and non-Māori. Linguistic and cultural groups examined in gesture studies often coincide with nationalities (e.g. Dutch, Japanese, varieties of English). By contrast, Māori language and culture exists as a distinct and influential minority within the broader national culture of New Zealand. Following the Māori Language Act of 1987, Te Reo Māori bears special status as an official cultural treasure (taonga) of Māori per the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and is recognised as an official language of New Zealand. One indication of this influence is the growing visibility of the Māori English ethnolect (Holmes, 2005; Maclagan, King & Gillon, 2008). Māori English (ME) refers to the concentrated usage of a bundle of phonetic qualities and lexical forms, although these elements are present to some degree in the speech of most New Zealanders. It stands to reason that if certain linguistic