COGNITIVE BASIS FOR THE VARIATION OF RECURRENT GESTURES IN EX-PLANATORY DISCOURSE: PALM-UP-OPEN-HAND AND PALM-DOWN-OPEN-HAND GESTURES

COGNITIVE BASIS FOR THE VARIATION OF RECURRENT GESTURES IN EX-PLANATORY DISCOURSE: PALM-UP-OPEN-HAND AND PALM-DOWN-OPEN-HAND GESTURES

Author:  O.K. Iriskhanova, A.I. Nikolayeva

Affiliation:  Moscow State Linguistic University

Abstract:  The paper provides the results of the analysis of recurrent gestures (palm-up-open-hand and palm-down-open-hand) used in Russian spoken explanatory discourse. It is argued that mimetic schemas which imitate various manipulations with objects and are directly linked to embodied cognition, can be used as efficient tools for cognitive analyses of gesture variation.
Following a set of formal criteria (configuration of the palm, a static / dynamic phase in the stroke, direction of the hand movement, boundedness or unboundedness of a gesture), the authors differ-entiate between general and specific mimetic schemas that form the cognitive basis for the palm-up-open-hand and the palm-down-open-hand gestures and their variants (subtypes).
With the help of qualitative and quantitative methods and procedures, correlation between cogni-tive (mimetic) and functional features of the gestures is investigated. The authors demonstrate that there is significant difference in distribution of the mimetic PUOH and PDOH schemas and their subtypes, and there is direct and strong correlation between the mimetic schemas and the functions realized through them in the explanatory discourse.

Keywords:  recurrence, recurrent gestures, palm-up-open-hand gestures (PUOH), palm-down-open-hand gestures (PDOH), mimetic schemas, explanatory discourse.

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Acknowledgments:  The part of the research concerning the procedures of gesture variation analyses was carried out at the Institute of Linguistics, RAS (project FMNE-2022-0015 «Kinetic and vocal aspects of communication: variation parameters»); the part of the research concerning the functional typology of gestures was realized at Moscow State Linguistic University (project № АААА-А20-120071690041-3 «Multimodal analysis of communicative behaviours in various types of discourse»).

For citation:  Iriskhanova, O. K., & Nikolayeva, A. I. (2023). Cognitive basis for the variation of recurrent gestures in explanatory discourse: palm-up-open-hand and palm-down-open-hand gestures. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 4, 26-34 (In Russ.).

Pages:  26-34