signalingpointing

Signalingpointing is a term used to describe the integrated use of signaling cues and pointing gestures to communicate referential intent within a shared environment. It encompasses the simultaneous deployment of verbal or nonverbal signals together with a deictic gesture to indicate objects, locations, or actions.

The concept sits at the intersection of gesture studies, pragmatics, and multimodal communication. It explains how speakers coordinate gesture with language to reduce ambiguity, establish joint attention, and guide a listener's interpretation in real time. The approach emphasizes that meaning is not carried by a single channel but by the combination of cues across channels.

In production, signalingpointing involves timing and alignment between speech and gesture, with listeners integrating auditory input and visual pointing to identify referents. In cross-cultural contexts, the interpretation of pointing and accompanying signals can vary, making signalingpointing a topic of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural research.

Applications of the concept appear in human-computer and human-robot interaction, where signalingpointing can be used to direct user attention, in education and signage design, and in studies of child development and social communication. Typical examples include a speaker saying "this one" while pointing to an object, or a virtual agent directing attention with combined verbal cues and a gesture. Research methods include multimodal experiments, gaze tracking, and corpus analysis.