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Gesture
Vol. 16:2 (2017) ► pp.245–276

Discourse management gestures

| University of California at Berkeley

Gestures that are used by interlocutors to manage the gist of their ‘discourse interactions’, namely content exchange and floor taking, can have one of two very different pragmatic functions: to signal inclusion and cooperation in friendly conversation, or to establish control in more argumentative conversation. While inclusive-cooperative gestures have been extensively studied (e.g., Bavelas, Chovil, Lavrie, & Wade, 1992; Kendon, 1995; Müller, 2004; Sweetser, 1998), control gestures received little attention (although see Kendon, 1995, 2004) until a recent spark of interest in their form and function (e.g., Calbris, 2011; Müller, 2017; Wehling, 2010, 2012, 2013). However, even though research has detailed important aspects of such discourse managing gestures, to date no comprehensive account of their conceptual foundations and pragmatic functions exists. The present paper fills this gap in the literature. Building on prior analyses of control gestures in argumentative discourse (e.g., Wehling, 2010) and inclusive-cooperative gestures in friendly conversation (e.g., Bavelas et al., 1992; Müller, 2004), it details a typology of discourse management gestures that distinguishes inclusive-cooperative and control gestures as separate pragmatic types and accounts for their forms and functions in terms of their conceptual foundations in primary metaphoric, space-motion schematic, and force dynamic reasoning.

Keywords: gesture, pragmatics, primary metaphor, space-motion schemas, force dynamics, embodiment
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Gesture
  • Discourse management gestures: A functional classification
  • The metaphoric foundations of discourse management gestures
  • The force-dynamic foundations of discourse management gestures
  • Exemplifying the force-dynamic categories of gestural discourse management
    • Content agonism
    • Stabbing and referential pointing in gestural agonism
    • Content antagonism
    • Floor agonism
    • Floor antagonism
    • Force conflict resolution
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.16.2.04weh
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