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Secrets in motion

The role of gestures in a multimodal coming out narrative

 | Adam Mickiewicz University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 12 September 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.25013.dyr
Abstract
This study explores the multimodal nature of metaphorical thought in coming out narratives, with a focus on the interplay between speech and gestures in the Polish language. Drawing on the metaphors knowing is seeing and secrets are objects, the paper examines how gestures embody and complement verbal expressions of revealing one’s sexual orientation. Using a qualitative approach, the study analyzes a set of gestures from a coming out narrative, identifying systematic patterns expressed in image schemas (e.g., object, containment) and their role in shaping the coming out frame and the emerging metaphorical scenarios. The findings reveal that gestures not only align with verbal content but also add layers of meaning, enhancing the narrative’s conceptual complexity over time. This research contributes to the understanding of multimodal communication in personal and culturally sensitive narratives, offering insights into metaphorical embodiment and narrative coherence.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Coming out and coming out narratives
  • Central metaphorical mappings in coming out discourse
    • knowing is seeing and its entailments in gesture
  • Levels of metaphor
  • Source material
  • Annotation scheme
  • Analysis
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions
  • References
References (74)
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