(Salle F104)

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  Pika, Simone (University of St. Andrews, St Andrews)
  Nicoladis, Elena (University of Alberta, Edmonton)
  Marentette, Paula (University of Alberta, Edmonton)

’How would your order a beer ?’ Cultural differences in the use of conventional gestures for numerals

Counting up to ten by using fi nger gestures can be found in every human culture. These fi nger gestures belong to the category of so called conventional gestures and are said to be transferred by the conventions of the specifi c community. They should therefore imply standards of form that must be met if the gestures are to be recognized, indicated by low levels of individual differences within the community. Therefore, it should be possible to guess an individuals’ cultural origin by observing her way of counting up to ten on the fi ngers. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis investigating the use of fi nger gestures of 20 English-Canadians, 20 French- Canadians, 20 Cantonese-speaking Canadians, 20 Germans, 20 Mexicans, and 20 Swedes in ten different hypothetical scenarios. First, we analyzed whether participants differentiated between ‘counting’ and ‘signalling’. Second, we investigated the consistency and uniformity of gesture techniques in more detail, focusing especially on concordances within and between groups. Third, we analyzed how participants depict the numeral 1. Our results showed that only the fi nger gestures of Germans and English- Canadians can be characterized by a high degree of uniformity, whereas all other groups showed high degrees of individual variety. Interestingly, the relatively high degrees of concordances between immigrant groups to Canada (Cantonese and Mexicans) and the traditional groups (English-Canadians and French-Canadians) support the view that gestural ‘characteristics’ of a culture disappear with the social assimilation of the individual to the ‘new’ community and new conventions are adopted. Reasons for these cultural differences and limitations to this study are addressed and discussed.