This study investigates whether there is a relation between the semantics of linguistic expressions that indicate temporal distance and the spatial properties of their co-speech gestures. To this date, research on time gestures has focused on features such as gesture axis, direction, and shape. Here we focus on a gesture property that has been overlooked so far: the distance of the gesture in relation to the body. To achieve this, we investigate two types of temporal linguistic expressions are addressed: proximal (e.g., near future, near past) and distal (e.g., distant past, distant future). Data was obtained through the NewsScape library, a multimodal corpus of television news. A total of 121 co-speech gestures were collected and divided into the two categories. The gestures were later annotated in terms of gesture space and classified in three categories: (i) center, (ii) periphery, and (iii) extreme periphery. Our results suggest that gesture and language are coherent in the expression of temporal distance: when speakers locate an event far from them, they tend to gesture further from their body; similarly, when locating an event close to them, they gesture closer to their body. These results thus reveal how co-speech gestures also reflect a space-time mapping in the dimension of distance.

中文翻译：

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遥远的时间，遥远的手势：言语和手势与表达时间距离相关

本研究调查了指示时间距离的语言表达的语义与其共同语音手势的空间特性之间是否存在关系。迄今为止，对时间手势的研究主要集中在手势轴、方向和形状等特征上。这里我们关注一个迄今为止被忽略的手势属性：手势相对于身体的距离。为了实现这一点，我们研究了两种类型的时间语言表达方式：近端（例如，不久的将来，近过去）和远端（例如，遥远的过去，遥远的未来）。数据是通过 NewsScape 图书馆获得的，这是一个多模态的电视新闻语料库。共收集了 121 个共同语音手势，并将其分为两类。这些手势后来根据手势空间进行了注释，并分为三类：（i）中心、（ii）外围和（iii）极端外围。我们的研究结果表明，手势和语言在时间距离的表达上是连贯的：当说话者远离他们定位一个事件时，他们倾向于远离他们的身体做手势；类似地，当他们靠近他们定位一个事件时，他们的手势更靠近他们的身体。因此，这些结果揭示了共同语音手势如何也反映了距离维度上的时空映射。他们的手势更靠近他们的身体。因此，这些结果揭示了共同语音手势如何也反映了距离维度上的时空映射。他们的手势更靠近他们的身体。因此，这些结果揭示了共同语音手势如何也反映了距离维度上的时空映射。