Visual patterns in the phonetics of gestures
This workshop is part of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS, German Linguistics Society).
DGfS website: https://dgfs.de/en/content/events/annual-conferences
Place: Trier University, Trier, Germany
Dates: 24. – 27.02.2026
Abstract submission deadline: 15.08.2025 | Notification of acceptance: 12.09.2025
Organization: Alina Gregori1, Frank Kügler1 & Petra Wagner2
1Goethe University Frankfurt, 2Bielefeld University
Call for Abstracts
Human communication is a multimodal system. Research on the contribution of the visual modality – in terms of gestures – to linguistics has grown in the last years. While aspects of gesture’s meaning and function have been intensively studied, less attention has been paid to visual and kinematic features, which nevertheless form the building blocks from which multimodal utterances constitute their meaning. To fully grasp the meaning and function of gestures and gradual variations in meaning, the phonetic characteristics of gestures need to be considered as well. Therefore, this workshop aims at bringing together researchers working on the phonetics of gestures, contributing to specify which gestural features are relevant for meaning constitution in communication and in what way. This entails features like the timing or rhythmical aspects of gestures, their physiological characteristics, as well as their (hand) shape, movement trajectories or other kinematic measures.
In this workshop, we aim at discussing the properties of visual constituents and kinematic features that affect meaning constitution and comprehension of spoken and signed languages. We want to engage in discussions on 1) methodological issues and advancements of investigating phonetic aspects of gestures, 2) new perspectives on which gestural features are relevant individually or in an integrated relation for meaning constitution, and 3) theoretical implications for linguistic and multimodal research that can be derived from the investigation of phonetic aspects of gestures.
The workshop language is English and talks will be 20 minutes + 10 minutes discussion.
Abstract submission
Abstracts need not be anonymous. Please use the DGfS-template for abstract submission (download below). Abstracts should be at most 1 page in length, examples and references included. The template size is A5, with 9pt Times New Roman in the text and 10pt Calibri for the title. All details can be found in the Word template.
For initial submission, you can use an additional page for Figures and Tables, but please note that a second page cannot be included in the final abstract for the DGfS Abstract booklet.
Word template for abstract submission:
LaTeX template for abstract submission:
Please send your abstract in PDF-format to gregori@lingua.uni-frankfurt.de and include your name, affiliation, and the title of the abstract in the body of the e-mail. The deadline for abstract submission is 15.08.2025.
Please be aware that DGfS regulations allow for presenters to only present in ONE DGfS workshop at the Annual meeting. While you can be co-author on talks in multiple workshops, you can only present in one.
We are looking forward to your submissions and to a fruitful workshop!