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Multimodal Communication from a Construction Grammar Perspective
Edited by Kiki Nikiforidou and Mirjam Fried
[Constructional Approaches to Language 38] 2025
► pp. 251–284

Contrastive negation constructions in Israeli Hebrew

A multimodal approach

| University of Haifa | Levinsky-Wingate Academic College
This study explores the functions of Hebrew Contrastive Negation constructions (CNs), which are usually considered grammatical patterns that combine the rejection of an accessible background assumption or an accessible claim in the discourse via its substitution, with the two being construed as alternatives. The study elaborates on discourse contexts that require the use of such constructions and shows that the pragmatics of CN motivates not only the existence of the construction, but also the choice of the particular gestural patterns coordinated with it. In line with recent developments of multimodal accounts of constructions (e.g., Lanwer, 2017; Schoonjans, 2017; Steen & Turner, 2013; Zima & Bergs, 2017), I propose that co-speech gestures should be viewed as an integral part of CNs in Hebrew.
Keywords: contrastive negation, multimodal Construction Grammar, gesture, Israeli Hebrew
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methods
  • 3.Contexts of use and gestural patterns
  • 4.Idiosyncratic referential gestures
  • 5.Referential distinction
  • 6.Pragmatic gestures
  • 7.Summary and concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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