Forward-Gesturing

Abstract

This paper discusses hand-gestures that serve as incipient and premonitory components of communicative actions and components of such actions. Gestures are examined with respect to the position in emerging turns and sequences of talk where they are made: before and at turn-beginning, in mid-turn, and during moments of turn-completion; and the projections that they make at these positions are delineated. Hand-gestures and their positioning relative to unfolding units of talk exemplify how the multimodality of the human body serves in the coordination of social action and the achievement of intersubjectivity.

Notes

¹The data are represented by very simple transcripts: beyond the talk, only the relative duration of gestures is shown by square brackets above the lines of transcript of talk; temporary suspensions of movement and the retraction of the hands are shown by dotted lines and commas, respectively. The forms of gestures and their movement trajectories are represented by labels and described in the text.

²An example are aerobics and dance instructors who cue new moves by forward-gesturing (Kerk Kee, personal communication, April 1, 2008).