The role of interactive hand gestures in response mobilization: A quantitative corpus analysis of Dutch conversations
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2025-08-28
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en
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In face-to-face conversations, question–response sequences show remarkably tight temporal alignment, with responses typically given within 200 milliseconds after question completion (Stivers et al., 2009). To maintain such short gaps, listeners must plan responses before questions end, requiring early question identification (Levinson, 2012). While previous research showed that facial signals help listeners recognize upcoming questions (Nota et al., 2021), this study investigated whether four addressee-oriented interactive hand gestures, i.e. upwards, diagonally and laterally facing open palm up and pointing gestures, also signal response urgency. To this end, a Dutch conversational corpus was analyzed quantitatively. Results showed that the gestures occurred more frequently with questions than responses, particularly with questions lacking early verbal question markers, with open palm up and pointing gestures exhibiting stronger response-mobilizing patterns. These findings could suggest that addressee-oriented interactive gestures function as response mobilizers (Stivers & Rossano, 2010), depending on their specific kinematic configuration.
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