The Kinematics of Composite Stories: A Motion-Capture Study of Manual Telling Sequences With Varying Degrees of Constructed Action in Finnish Sign Language Narratives.

This study combines a corpus approach with motion-capture measurements of Finnish Sign Language signers' dominant wrist movements to study the influence of constructed action on the kinematics of manually produced sign sequences. The participants' hand movements are studied across three points on a continuum from no co-occurring constructed action to prominent concurrent constructed action. The results show that sequences involving more constructed action are gradually paired with a decrease in movement prominence, as cued by peak distance between the hand and the torso, movement complexity, as well as velocity and acceleration. Two interpretations of these findings are offered: one connected to storytelling strategies and the other to cognitive-articulatory pressures.