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Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 16:3 (2017) ► pp.432–479

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Interactional functions of lip funneling gestures

A case study of Northern Kampa Arawaks of Peru

 | James Cook University, Australia
Published online: 1 February 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.00004.mih
Abstract
Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in lowland Peru, this study examines interactional functions of Northern Kampa (Arawak) lip funneling gestures. The study has shown that lip funnels have two functions, spatial deictic and upgrading. Spatial deictic lip funnels orient the addressee to a referential target in acts of direct and deferred ostension and abstract pointing; they are accompanied with aligned gaze and coupled with a variety of lexical items (although they need not be). Spatial deictic lip funnels are intense, sometimes held for the duration of the entire utterance. The second function of lip funnels is to amplify the speaker’s claim to epistemic authority in upgraded responses. In the upgrading function, lip funnels are paired with a limited range of grammatical constructions (negative-interrogative, polar focus and exhaustive focus); the gesturer’s gaze is directed at the recipient, or eyes are shut. Nasalization of vowels is in complementary distribution with eye shutting. ‘Upgrading’ lip funnels are transitory facial actions, normally lasting a split second.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Lexicogrammatical resources used for upgrading the speaker’s epistemic status
  • The shape and variation in the intensity of the lip funneling gesture
    • The shape of the lip funneling gesture
    • Interspeaker variation in the lip gesture’s intensity
    • Intraspeaker variation in the lip gesture’s intensity
  • Coordination with gaze, speech, and manual pointing
    • Coordination with gaze
    • Coordination with speech
    • Coordination with manual pointing
    • Lip-Hand sequence
    • Coterminous production of lip and hand pointing
    • Coterminous production of a lip funnel with a depictive hand gesture
  • Functions of lip funnels
    • Spatial deictic uses of lip funnels
    • Deferred ostension
    • Abstract pointing
    • Upgrading function of lip funnels
    • Topic-proffering sequences
    • Assessment sequence
  • Discussion: Linguistic and cultural aspects of lip pointing
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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