This paper discusses how a particular type of recurrent gesture, the holding away gesture, highlights and structures spoken utterances in German and Savosavo, a Papuan language spoken in Solomon Islands in the Southwest Pacific. In particular, the paper poses the following questions: What kinds of discursive functions of this gesture are observable in these speech communities? How do they map onto the two speech communities? Are there cross-linguistic similarities and differences detectable? What motivates similarity and variation across speech communities? Utilizing Fraser’s (1999) pragmatic classification of discourse markers, it is shown that the holding away gesture shows the connection of topics and messages. For both languages, we explore the functional diversity of the gesture. Some functions are found in both data sets, though the proportions differ, while others are exclusively found in one or the other. Finally, we discuss how differences in discourse type and interactional setting may facilitate specific forms and uses of the holding away gesture.
Blakemore, D. (2004). Discourse markers. In L. R. Horn & G. L. Ward (Eds.), The handbook of pragmatics (pp. 221–240). Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell.
Blühdorn, H. (2017). Diskursmarker: Pragmatische Funktion und syntaktischer Status. In H. Blühdorn, A. Deppermann, H. Helmer, & T. Spranz-Fogasy (Eds.), Diskursmarker im Deutschen: Reflexionen und Analysen (pp. 311–336). Göttingen: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.
Blühdorn, H., Deppermann, A., Helmer, H., & Spranz-Fogasy, T. (2017). Diskursmarker im Deutschen: Reflexionen und Analysen. Göttingen: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.
Blühdorn, H., Foolen, A., & Loureda, Ó. (2017). Diskursmarker: Begriffsgeschichte – Theorie – Beschreibung. Ein bibliographischer Überblick. In H. Blühdorn, A. Deppermann, H. Helmer, & T. Spranz-Fogasy (Eds.), Diskursmarker im Deutschen: Reflexionen und Analysen (pp. 7–48). Göttingen: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.
Bordería, S. P. (2006). A functional approach to the study of discourse markers. In K. Fischer (Ed.), Approaches to discourse particles (pp. 77–100). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Bressem, J., Ladewig, S. H., & Müller, C. (2013). Linguistic annotation system for gestures (LASG). In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Teßendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 11, pp. 1098–1125). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Bressem, J. & Müller, C. (2014a). A repertoire of recurrent gestures of German. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1575–1591). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Bressem, J. & Müller, C. (2014b). The family of Away gestures: Negation, refusal, and negative assessment. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1592–1604). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Bressem, J. & Müller, C. (2017). The “Negative-Assessment-Construction”–A multimodal pattern based on a recurrent gesture?Linguistics Vanguard, 3 (s1).
Bressem, J., Stein, N., & Wegener, C. (2015). Structuring and highlighting speech – Discursive functions of holding away gestures in Savosavo. Paper presented at the GESPIN 4, Nantes.
Calbris, G. (2013). Elements of meaning in gesture: The analogical links. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Teßendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 11, pp. 658–674). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Cooperrider, K., Abner, N., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2018). The palm-up puzzle: meanings and origins of a widespread form in gesture and sign. Frontiers in Communication,
3
1, 23.
Diewald, G. (2007). Abtönungspartikel. In L. Hoffmann (Ed.), Handbuch der deutschen Wortarten (pp. 117–142). Berlin: de Gruyter.
Duboisdindien, G., Grandin, C., Boutet, D., & Lacheret-Dujour, A. (2019). A multimodal corpus to check on pragmatic competence for Mild Cognitive Impaired aging people. Corpus (191).
Efron, D. (1941/1972). Gesture, race, and culture. Paris & The Hague: Mouton.
Ekman, P. & Friesen, W. V. (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage and coding. Semiotica,
1
1, 49–98.
Fischer, K. (2006). Frames, constructions, and invariant meanings: The functional polysemy of discourse particles. In K. Fischer (Ed.), Approaches to discourse particles (pp. 427–447). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Fraser, B. (1999). What are discourse markers?Journal of Pragmatics,
31
(7), 931–952.
Fraser, B. (2006). Towards a theory of discourse markers. In K. Fischer (Ed.), Approaches to discourse particles (pp. 189–204). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Fraser, B. (2009a). An account of discourse markers. International Review of Pragmatics,
1
(2), 293–320.
Fraser, B. (2009b). Topic orientation markers. Journal of Pragmatics,
41
(5), 892–898.
Fricke, E., Bressem, J., & Müller, C. (2014). Gesture families and gesture fields. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1630–1640). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Harrison, S. (2009). Grammar, gesture, and cognition: The case of negation in English. PhD Thesis, Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux 31.
Harrison, S. (2018). The impulse to gesture: Where language, minds, and bodies intersect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Helbig, G. (1988). Lexikon deutscher Partikeln. Leipzig: Verlag Enzyklopädie.
Inbar, A. & Shor, L. (2019). Covert negation in Israeli Hebrew: Evidence from co-speech gestures. Journal of Pragmatics,
143
1, 85–95.
Kendon, A. (1972). Some relationship between body motion and speech. In A. Seigman & B. Pope (Eds.), Studies in dyadic communication (pp. 177–216). New York: Pergamon Press.
Kendon, A. (1983). Gesture and speech: how they interact. In J. M. Wiemann (Ed.), Nonverbal interaction (pp. 13–46). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Kendon, A. (1995). Gestures as illocutionary and discourse structure markers in Southern Italian conversation. Journal of Pragmatics,
23
1, 247–279.
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kendon, A. (2017). Reflections on the “gesture-first” hypothesis of language origins. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,
24
(1), 163–170.
Ladewig, S. H. (2011). Putting the cyclic gesture on a cognitive basis. CogniTextes, 61.
Ladewig, S. H. (2014a). Recurrent gestures. In C. Müller, E. Fricke, A. Cienki, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1558–1574). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Ladewig, S. H. (2014b). The cyclic gesture. In C. Müller, E. Fricke, A. Cienki, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1605–1618). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Loehr, D. (2004). Gesture and intonation. PhD Thesis, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.
Lopez-Ozieblo, R. (2020). Proposing a revised functional classification of pragmatic gestures. Lingua, 102870.
McClave, E. Z. (1991). Intonation and gesture. PhD Thesis, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.
McClave, E. Z. (1994). Gestural beats: The rhythm hypothesis. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research,
23
(1), 45–66.
McCullough, K. E. (2005). Using gestures during speaking: Self-generating indexical fields. Ann Arbor, MI: U.M.I.
McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind. What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McNeill, D. (2005). Gesture and thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McNeill, D. & Levy, E. T. (1982). Conceptual representations in language activity and gesture. In J. Jarvella & W. Klein (Eds.), Speech, slace, and action. Studies in deixis and related topics (pp. 271–295). Chichester: John Wiley.
McNeill, D. & Levy, E. T. (1993). Cohesion and gesture. Discourse Processes,
16
(4), 363–386.
McNeill, D., Levy, E. T., & Duncan, S. D. (2015). Gesture in discourse. In Deborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hamilton, & Deborah Schiffrin (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (Vol. 21, pp. 262–289). Chichester: John Wiley.
Mittelberg, I. (2006). Metaphor and metonymy in language and gesture: Discoursive evidence for multimodal models of grammar. Ann Arbor, MI: U.M.I.
Mittelberg, I. (2010). Interne und externe Metonymie: Jakobsonsche Kontiguitätsbeziehungen in redebegleitenden Gesten. Sprache und Literatur,
41
(105), 112–143.
Mittelberg, I. & Waugh, L. R. (2009). Metonymy first, metaphor second: A cognitive-semiotic approach to multimodal figures of thought in co-speech gesture. In C. Forceville & E. Urios-Aparisi (Eds.), Multimodal metaphor (pp. 329–356). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Müller, C. (2004). Forms and uses of the Palm Up Open Hand. A case of a gesture family? In C. Müller & R. Posner (Eds.), Semantics and pragmatics of everyday gestures (pp. 233–256). Berlin: Weidler Verlag.
Müller, C. (2010). Wie Gesten bedeuten. Eine kognitiv-linguistische und sequenzanalytische Perspektive. Sprache und Literatur,
41
(1), 37–68.
Müller, C. (2014). The Ring across space and time: Variation and stability of forms and meanings. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1511–1522). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Müller, C. (2018). Gesture and sign: Cataclysmic break or dynamic relations?Frontiers in Psychology,
9
1, 1651.
Müller, C., Bressem, J., & Ladewig, S. H. (2013). Towards a grammar of gesture: A form-based view. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Teßendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 11, pp. 707–733). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Müller, C. & Speckmann, G. (2002). Gestos con una valoración negativa en la conversación cubana. DeSignis,
3
1, 91–103.
Payrató, L. & Teßendorf, S. (2014). Pragmatic gestures. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1531–1540). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Posner, R. (2003). Everyday gestures as a result of ritualization. In M. Rector, I. Poggi, & N. Trigo (Eds.), Everyday gestures: Meaning and use. (pp. 217–230). Porto: Fernando Pessoa Univ. Press.
Quintilian. (1993). The institution oratoria. Vol. 41. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Redeker, G. (1991). Linguistic markers of discourse structure. Linguistics,
29
(6), 1139–1172.
Redeker, G. (2006). Discourse markers as attentional cues at discourse transitions. In K. Fischer (Ed.), Approaches to discourse particles (Vol. 11, pp. 339–358). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Schiffrin, D. (1987). Discourse markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schoonjans, S. (2018). Modalpartikeln als multimodale Konstruktionen: Eine korpusbasierte Kookkurrenzanalyse von Modalpartikeln und Gestik im Deutschen. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Streeck, J. (2005). Pragmatic aspects of gesture. In J. Mey (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics (pp. 275–299). Oxford: Elsevier.
Streeck, J. (2008). Gesture in political communication: A case study of the Democratic presidential candidates during the 2004 primary campaign. Research on Language and Social Interaction,
41
(2), 154–186.
Teßendorf, S. (2014). Pragmatic and metaphoric gestures– combining functional with cognitive approaches in the analysis of the “brushing aside gesture”. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – language – communication. An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1540–1558). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Teßendorf, S. (2016). Actions as sources for gestures. In K. Jungbluth & M. Fernández-Villanueva (Eds.), Beyond language boundaries. Multimodal use in multilingual contexts. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Thurmair, M. (1989). Modalpartikeln und ihre Kombinationen. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Wegener, C. (2012). A grammar of Savosavo. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Weydt, H. (1979). Die Partikeln der deutschen Sprache. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Weydt, H. (1989). Sprechen mit Partikeln. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Cited by (8)
Cited by eight other publications
Dyrmo, Tomasz
2024. Image schemas in gestural metaphorical scenarios of swearing. Multimodal Communication 13:2 ► pp. 117 ff.
Ladewig, Silva H.
2024. Recurrent Gestures: Cultural, Individual, and Linguistic Dimensions of Meaning-Making. In The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies, ► pp. 32 ff.
Müller, Cornelia
2024. A Toolbox of Methods for Gesture Analysis. In The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies, ► pp. 182 ff.
Corella, Meghan
2023. “Talk to the hand”: handling peer conflict through gestural socialization in an elementary classroom. Frontiers in Communication 8
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 january 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.