Meaningful shifts: A review of viewpoint markers in co-speech gesture and sign language

Stec, Kashmiri

doi:10.1075/gest.12.3.03ste

Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 12:3 (2012) ► pp.327–360

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Meaningful shifts

A review of viewpoint markers in co-speech gesture and sign language

Kashmiri Stec | University of Groningen

Published online: 24 May 2013

https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.12.3.03ste

This review describes the primary strategies used to express changes in conceptual viewpoint (Parrill, 2012) in co-speech gesture and sign language. We describe the use of the face, eye gaze, body orientation and hands to represent these differences in viewpoint, focusing particularly on McNeill’s (1992) division of iconic gestures into observer versus character viewpoint gestures, and on the situations in which they occur. We also draw a parallel between the strategies used in co-speech gesture and those used in different signed languages (see Cormier, Quinto-Pozos, Sevcikova, & Schembri, 2012), and suggest possibilities for further research in this area.

Keywords: viewpoint, sign language, gesture

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