Gesture: Difference between revisions

The first way to distinguish between categories of gesture is to differentiate between communicative gesture and informative gesture. While most gestures can be defined as possibly happening during the course of spoken utterances, the informative-communicative dichotomy focuses on intentional of meaning and communication in co-speech gesture.<ref name=":1" />

 

Informative gestures are passive gestures that provide information about the speaker as a person and not about what the speaker is trying to communicate.Some movements are not purely considered gestures, however a person could perform these adapters in such way like scratching, adjusting clothing, and tapping.'''<ref>Krauss, R.M.; Chen, Y. & Chawla, P. (2000). "Nonverbal behavior and nonverbal communication: What do conversational hand gestures tell us?" (PDF). ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology''. '''1''' (2): 389–450. [[Digital object identifier|doi]]:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60241-5.</ref>'''

 

These gestures can occur during speech, but they may also occur independently of communication, as they are not a part of active communication. While informative gestures may communicate information about the person speaking (e.g. itchy, uncomfortable, etc.), this communication is not engaged with any language being produced by the person gesturing.<ref name=":1" />

 

Communicative gestures are gestures that are produced intentionally and meaningfully by a person as a way of intensifying or modifying speech produced in the vocal tract (or with the hands in the case of sign languages), even though a speaker may not be actively aware that they are producing communicative gestures. <ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last=Abner et. al.|first=Natasha|year=2015|title=Gesture for Linguists: A Handy Primer|url=https://goldin-meadow-lab.uchicago.edu/sites/goldin-meadow-lab.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/PDFs/2015_Abner,%20Cooperrider,%20Goldin-Meadow%20-%20Gesture%20for%20Linguists%20A%20Handy%20Primer.pdf|journal=Language and Linguistics Compass|volume=9|pages=437–449|doi=10.1111/lnc3.12168|via=Wiley & Sons}}</ref> For instance, on the picture above of Uncle Sam, he is pointing and sending a non-verbal form of gesture by implying he wants you to join the U.S. Army. This is a form of symbolic gesture, usually used in the absence of speech.  <ref name=":52">''Gesture, sign and language: The coming of age of sign language and gesture studies''. Available from: <nowiki>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282760416_Gesture_sign_and_language_The_coming_of_age_of_sign_language_and_gesture_studies</nowiki> [accessed Nov 04 2018].</ref>

 

== Body Language Relating to Gestures ==

 

=== Manual gestures ===

A gesture that is a form of communication in which bodily actions communicate particular messages. Manual gestures are most commonly broken down into four distinct categories: Symbolic (Emblematic), [[Deixis|Deictic]] (Indexical), Motor (Beat), and Lexical (Iconic)<ref name=":0" />It is important to note that manual gesture in the sense of communicative co-speech gesture does not include the gesture-signs of [[Sign language|Sign Language]]<nowiki/>s, even though sign language is communicative and primarily produced using the hands, because the gestures in [[Sign language|Sign Language]] are not used to intensify or modify the speech produced by the vocal tract, rather they communicate fully productive language through a method alternative to the [[vocal tract]].

==== Symbolic (emblematic) ====

{{Main|List of gestures}}The most familiar are the so-called emblems or quotable gestures. These are conventional, culture-specific gestures that can be used as replacement for words, such as the handwave used in the US for "hello" and "goodbye". A single emblematic gesture can have a very different significance in different cultural contexts, ranging from complimentary to highly offensive.<ref>Morris, Desmond, Collett, Peter, Marsh, Peter, O'Shaughnessy, Marie. 1979. Gestures, their origins and distribution. London. Cape</ref> The page [[List of gestures]] discusses emblematic gestures made with one hand, two hands, hand and other body parts, and body and facial gestures.