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Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 16:2 (2017) ► pp.277–304

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How recurrent gestures mean

Conventionalized contexts-of-use and embodied motivation

 | European University Viadrina, Frankfurt-Oder
Published online: 12 January 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.16.2.05mul
Abstract
Drawing upon corpus analyses of recurrent gestures, a pragmatics perspective on gestural meaning and conventionalization will be developed. Gesture pragmatics is considered in terms of usage-based, embodied and interactively emerging meaning. The article brings together cognitive linguistic, cognitive semiotic and interactional perspectives on meaning making.
How the interrelation between different types of context (interactional, semantic/pragmatic/syntactic, distribution across a corpus) with the embodied motivation of kinesic forms in actions and movement experiences of the body might play out in the process of conventionalization is illustrated by discussing three recurrent gestures: the Palm-Up-Open-Hand, the Holding Away, and the Cyclic gesture. By merging conventional and idiosyncratic elements recurrent gestures occupy a place between spontaneously created (singular) gestures and emblems as fully conventionalized gestural expressions on a continuum of increasing conventionalization (cf. Kendon’s continuum: McNeill, David (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2000). Introduction. In David McNeill (Ed.), Language and gesture (pp. 1–10). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Recurrent gestures are an interesting case to study how processes of conventionalization may involve emergent de-compositions of gestural movements into smaller concomitant Gestalts (cf. (2004). Gesture: Visible actions as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Chapters 15 & 16). They are particularly revealing in showing how those de-compositional processes are grounded experientially in contexts-of-use and remain grounded in conventionalized, yet still embodied, experiential frames.
Article outline
  • Introducing the concept of recurrent gestures
  • Local usage-contexts: Emergent meaning from use
    • The Palm-Up-Open-Hand presenting a (rhetorical) question
    • Using the Palm-Away-Open-Hand to reject a topic of talk
    • Using the Cyclic gesture to ask for the correct word
  • Recurring gestural forms and usage-contexts: Prototypical meanings arising from their distribution across a corpus
  • Embodied motivation of the gestural form: Emerging meaning from actions and movement experiences
  • Local variations of form and meaning: Recurrent gestures as hybrids of idiosyncratic and conventional elements
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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2021. Recurrent gestures throughout bodies, languages, and cultural practices. Gesture 20:2 ► pp. 153 ff. DOI logo
HARTMAN, JENNY & CARITA PARADIS
2021. Figurative meaning in multimodal work by an autistic artist: a cognitive semantic approach. Language and Cognition 13:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Ladewig, Silva H. & Lena Hotze
2021. The Slapping movement as an embodied practice of dislike. Gesture 20:2 ► pp. 285 ff. DOI logo
Ladewig, Silva H. & Lena Hotze
2023. From action to performative gesture: the Slapping movement used by children at the age of four to six. Semiotica 2023:250 ► pp. 91 ff. DOI logo
Hinnell, Jennifer & Fey Parrill
2020. Gesture Influences Resolution of Ambiguous Statements of Neutral and Moral Preferences. Frontiers in Psychology 11 DOI logo
Ripperda, Jordy, Linda Drijvers & Judith Holler
2020. Speeding up the detection of non-iconic and iconic gestures (SPUDNIG): A toolkit for the automatic detection of hand movements and gestures in video data. Behavior Research Methods 52:4 ► pp. 1783 ff. DOI logo
Sowińska, Agnieszka & Monika Boruta-Żywiczyńska
2020. Gestures in patients’ presentation of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). Gesture 19:1 ► pp. 97 ff. DOI logo
Bressem, Jana
2019. Book review. Journal of Pragmatics 151 ► pp. 67 ff. DOI logo
Cooperrider, Kensy
2019. Universals and diversity in gesture. Gesture 18:2-3 ► pp. 209 ff. DOI logo
Gawne, Lauren, Chelsea Krajcik, Helene N. Andreassen, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker & Barbara F. Kelly
2019. Data transparency and citation in the journal Gesture . Gesture 18:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Holler, Judith & Stephen C. Levinson
2019. Multimodal Language Processing in Human Communication. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 23:8 ► pp. 639 ff. DOI logo
Philipsen, Johanne S. & Sarah Bro Trasmundi
2019. Gesture reuse as distributed embodied cognition. Gesture 18:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Streeck, Jürgen
2019. Gesture research. In Handbook of Pragmatics [Handbook of Pragmatics, ], ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Streeck, Jürgen
2021. The emancipation of gestures. Interactional Linguistics 1:1 ► pp. 90 ff. DOI logo
Streeck, Jürgen
2022. Gesture research. In Handbook of Pragmatics [Handbook of Pragmatics, ], ► pp. 672 ff. DOI logo
Cooperrider, Kensy, Natasha Abner & Susan Goldin-Meadow
2018. The Palm-Up Puzzle: Meanings and Origins of a Widespread Form in Gesture and Sign. Frontiers in Communication 3 DOI logo
Kamunen, Antti
2018. Open Hand Prone as a resource in multimodal claims to interruption. Gesture 17:2 ► pp. 291 ff. DOI logo
McNeill, David
2018. Recurrent gestures. Gesture 17:2 ► pp. 229 ff. DOI logo
McNeill, David
2024. The Growth Point. In The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies, ► pp. 477 ff. DOI logo
Mesh, Kate & Lynn Hou
2018. Negation in San Juan Quiahije Chatino Sign Language. Gesture 17:3 ► pp. 330 ff. DOI logo
Müller, Cornelia
2018. Gesture and Sign: Cataclysmic Break or Dynamic Relations?. Frontiers in Psychology 9 DOI logo
Müller, Cornelia
2024. Gestural mimesis as “as-if” action. In Perspectives on Pantomime [Advances in Interaction Studies, 12], ► pp. 217 ff. DOI logo
Müller, Cornelia
2024. A Toolbox of Methods for Gesture Analysis. In The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies, ► pp. 182 ff. DOI logo
Perniss, Pamela
2018. Why We Should Study Multimodal Language. Frontiers in Psychology 9 DOI logo
Mittelberg, Irene
2017. Embodied frames and scenes. Gesture 16:2 ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo
Mittelberg, Irene
2018. Gestures as image schemas and force gestalts: A dynamic systems approach augmented with motion-capture data analyses. Cognitive Semiotics 11:1 DOI logo
Mittelberg, Irene
2019. Peirce’s universal categories: On their potential for gesture theory and multimodal analysis. Semiotica 2019:228 ► pp. 193 ff. DOI logo
Mittelberg, Irene
2019. Visuo-Kinetic Signs Are Inherently Metonymic: How Embodied Metonymy Motivates Forms, Functions, and Schematic Patterns in Gesture. Frontiers in Psychology 10 DOI logo
Wehling, Elisabeth
2017. Discourse management gestures. Gesture 16:2 ► pp. 245 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2024. Beyond Disfluency [Advances in Interaction Studies, 11], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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