Lennart Fritzsche

Researcher in Project A4

PhD student and program manager of the research initiative “Multimodal Communication”

› Project A4: Multimodality, Iconicity and the Common Ground: The Status of Speech and Gesture

Contact

fritzschespam prevention@em.uni-frankfurt.de

Google Scholar | ORCID

Short Bio

Lennart is a PhD student in Linguistics at Goethe University Frankfurt within the project “Multimodality, Iconicity and the Common Ground: The Status of Speech and Gesture” (CRC 1718 Common Ground). In his dissertation, he investigates the semantics and pragmatics of commitment modification in speech and gesture and addresses methodological questions concerning the diagnosis and measurement of communicative commitments. He is also the project manager of the “Multimodal Communication” research initiative at Goethe University. His research interests lie in theoretical and experimental semantics and pragmatics, in particular communicative commitments, response elements, multimodal meaning, iconicity, at-issueness, and gradability, as well as the use of quantitative approaches to body movement analysis for theory building in multimodal communication research.

Research Interests

Multimodal meaning and iconicity
Gradability and intensification
Commitments in communication
At-issueness
Response strategies

Education

PhD in Linguistics, Goethe University Frankfurt (ongoing)
MA in Linguistics, Goethe University Frankfurt
BA in Linguistics, Goethe University Frankfurt

Selected Publications/Projects

Fritzsche, L. (2025). The at-issue status of (modified) pro-speech gestures. In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 29.
Fritzsche, L., Bade, N., Ebert, C., Meier, C. (2025). Ja or jaaaaa? Scale interpretation in iconically lengthened response particles. In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 29.
Gregori, A., Amici, F., Brilmayer, I., Ćwiek, A., Fritzsche, L., Fuchs, S., ... & von Eiff, C. I. (2023). A roadmap for technological innovation in multimodal communication research. In Duffy, V.G. (eds) Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14029, Springer, Cham.

Awards & Achievements

Doctoral candidate research grant for the project Diagnosing commitment: A methodological reassessment and a novel gamified paradigm, Societas Linguistica Europaea, 2026
Best poster award for Nodding yes or doch? On the interpretation of gestural response elements (with Sebastian Walter, Goethe University Frankfurt), LingCologne conference Feedback in Interaction, 2025
Research grant for MA thesis project Intensified head nods as evidence for gradable commitment in assertion, Alfons und Gertrud Kassel-Stiftung, 2024
Short-term collaboration grant and follow-up funding for A crossmodal investigation of negation and rejection (with Sebastian Walter, Goethe University Frankfurt), DFG Priority Program Visual Communication (ViCom), 2024–2025