Cover not available
Article published In:
Gesture
Vol. 21:1 (2022) ► pp.28–81

A recurring absence gesture in Northern Pastaza Kichwa

The spread-fingered hand torque

ORCID logo | University of Alberta
In this paper I posit the use of a spread-fingered hand torque gesture among speakers of Northern Pastaza Kichwa (Quechuan, Ecuador) as a recurrent gesture conveying the semantic theme of absence. The data come from a documentary video corpus collected by multiple researchers. The gesture prototypically takes the form of at least one pair of rapid rotations of the palm (the torque). Fingers can be spread or slightly flexed towards the palm to varying degrees. This gesture is performed in a consistent manner across speakers (and expressions) and co-occurs with a set of speech strings with related semantic meanings. Taking a cognitive linguistic approach, I analyse the form, function, and contexts of this gesture and argue that, taken together, it should be considered a recurrent gesture that indicates absence.
Keywords: Ecuadorian Quechua, co-speech gesture, recurrent gesture, absence
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Background on the language and the SFHT gesture in the Ecuadorian context
  • Corpus and methodology
  • Form of the spread-fingered hand torque
    • Movement
    • Handshape
  • Orientation and position
    • Summary
  • Semantic function of the spread-fingered hand torque
    • Referential absence
    • Relational absence
    • Epistemic absence
    • Summary
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 25 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.21008.ric
References (109)
References
Anthony, L. (2020). AntConc (Version 3.5.9) [Computer Software]. [URL]
Aschmann, R. P. (2020). A reference grammar of Ecuadorian Quichua (2nd ed.) [Unpublished manuscript]. [URL]
Bermúdez, A. P., & Uzendoski, M. A. (2018). Kukama Runa: Polyphonic Aesthetics in Cine Comunitario Among the Napo Runa of Amazonian Ecuador. Anthropology and Humanism, 43 (1), 74–89. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bickel, B., Comrie, B., & Haspelmath, M. (2008). The Leipzig glossing rules: Conventions for interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme glosses. [URL]
Bossano Molina, F. G. (2019). Identidad y lengua de señas ecuatoriana: una etnografía al interior de la comunidad sorda de Quito [Bacherlor’s thesis, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador]. Repositorio de Tesis de Grado y Posgrado. [URL]
Brown, P. (2014). Gestures in native Mexico and Central America: The Mayan cultures. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (pp. 1206–1214). De Gruyter, Inc. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Calbris, G. (1990). The Semiotics of French Gestures. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Chafe, W. L. (1970). Meaning and the structure of language. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cienki, A. (1998). Straight: An image schema and its metaphorical extensions. Cognitive Linguistics, 9 (2), 107–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
CNID. (2014). Diccionario de Lengua de Señas Ecuatoriana Gabriel Román. Consejo Nacional de Igualdad de Discapacidades. [URL]
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 (23), 1–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooperrider, K., & Núñez, R. (2012). Nose-pointing: Notes on a facial gesture of Papua New Guinea. Gesture, 12 (2), 103–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davis, J., Sellers, S., Gray, C., & Bilsborrow, R. (2017). Indigenous migration dynamics in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A longitudinal and hierarchical analysis. Journal of Development Studies, 53 (11), 1849–1864. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eberhard, D. M., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (Eds.). (2023). Ethnologue: Languages of the world, Twenty-sixth edition. SIL International.Google Scholar
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1 1, 49–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2009). The anatomy of meaning: Speech, gesture, and composite utterances. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, N., & Levinson, S. C. (2009). The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32 (5), 429–448. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Floyd, S. (2018, July 4–8). Spoken and visual negation in two languages of Ecuador [Conference Presentation]. 8th international conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies, Cape Town, South Africa.
Floyd, S., Manrique, E., Rossi, G., & Torreira, F. (2016). Timing of Visual Bodily Behavior in Repair Sequences: Evidence From Three Languages. Discourse Processes, 53 (3), 175–204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gholami, S. (2018). Zoroastrian Dari community reaction to Chouette Films video installation. Endangered Languages Archive Blog. [URL]
Gómez Rendón, J. (2008). Typological and social constraints of language contact. Amerindian languages in contact with Spanish: Vol. I. LOT.Google Scholar
Gries, S. T. (2003). Towards a corpus-based identification of prototypical instances of constructions. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 1 1, 1–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grzech, K. (2017). Napo Runa sachamanda ambiguna (‘Medicinal plants of the Napo Runa’): An educational video made in collaboration with the speakers of Amazonian Kichwa. Endangered Languages Archive Blog. [URL]
Grzech, K., Schwarz, A., & Ennis, G. (2019). Divided we stand, unified we fall? The impact of standardisation on oral language varieties: a case study of Amazonian Kichwa. Revista de Llengua i Dret, 71 1, 123–145.Google Scholar
Haboud, M. (2010). South America: Andean region. In C. C. Moseley (Ed.), Atlas of the world’s languages in danger (pp. 95–102). UNESCO.Google Scholar
Hinnell, J. (2018). The multimodal marking of aspect: The case of five periphrastic auxiliary constructions in North American English. Cognitive Linguistics, 29 (4), 773–806. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kamunen, A. (2019). How to disengage: Suspension, body torque, and repair. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 52 (4), 406–426. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kendon, A. (1995). Gestures as illocutionary and discourse structure markers in Southern Italian conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 23 (3), 247–297. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1997). Gesture. Annual Review of Anthropology, 26 (1), 109–128. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kilma, E. S., & Bellugi, U. (1979). The signs of language. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ladewig, S. H. (2011). Putting the cyclic gesture on a cognitive basis. CogniTextes, 6 1, 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014). Recurrent gestures. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1558–1574). De Gruyter, Inc.Google Scholar
Ladewig, S. H., & Bressem, J. (2013). New insights into the medium hand: Discovering recurrent structures in gestures. Semiotica, 197 1, 203–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W. (1987). Nouns and verbs. Language, 63 (1), 53–94. [URL]
León, A. M. (1927). Explicación catequética en el Quichua de Canelos. In El Oriente Dominicano. Imprenta de Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
(1929). Breve vocabulario de las principales lenguas que se hablan en los diferentes pueblos y jibarías de la Prefectura Apostólica de Canelos y Macas. In El Oriente Dominicano (Vol. 21). Imprenta de Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
(1939). Vocabulario de palabras quichuas generalmente habladas por los indígenas en la misión del Oriente dominicano. In El Oriente Dominicano (Vol. 121). Imprenta de Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
Limerick, N. (2017). Kichwa or Quichua? Competing alphabets, political histories, and complicated reading in indigenous languages. Comparative Education Review, 62 (1), 103–125. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lovestrand, J. (2017). Video documentation of the Barayin language. Endangered Languages Archive Blog. [URL]
McClave, E. Z. (2000). Linguistic functions of head movements in the context of speech. Journal of Pragmatics, 32 1, 855–878. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
(2005). Gesture and thought. University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ministerio de Educación del Ecuador. (2009). Kichwa yachakukkunapa shimiyuk kamu. Ministerio de Educación del Ecuador.Google Scholar
Mittelberg, I. (2007). Methodology for multimodality: One way of working with speech and gesture data. In M. Gonzalez-Marques, I. Mittelberg, S. Coulson, & M. J. Spivey (Eds.), Methods in Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 225–248). John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010). Geometric and image-schematic patterns in gesture space (V. Evans & P. Chilton (Eds.); pp. 351–386). Equinox Publishing.Google Scholar
Moseley, C. (2010). Atlas of the world’s languages in danger (3rd ed.). UNESCO Publishing.Google Scholar
Müller, C. (2014). Gestural modes of representation as techniques of depiction. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. LAdewig, D. McNeill, & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1687–1701). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Müller, C., Ladewig, S. H., & Bressem, J. (2013). Gestures and speech from a linguistic perspective: A new field and its history. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 11, pp. 55–81). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muratorio, B. (1998). Rucuyaya Alonso y la historia social y económica del Alto Napo 1850–1950. In Abya-Yala (Segunda Ed). Abya-Yala. [URL]
Muysken, P. (2000). Semantic transparency in Lowland Ecuadorian Quechua morphosyntax. Linguistics, 38 (5), 973–988. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2019). El kichwa ecuatoriano: Orígenes, riqueza, contactos. Abya-Yala.Google Scholar
Nasevilla, K. (2015). Aportes lingüísticos para la sistematización de la lengua de señas de Quito. Pontifica Universidad Catolica Del Ecuador (Bacherlor’s thesis).
Nuckolls, J. B. (n.d.-a). Quechua Research Group [YouTube Channel]. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from [URL]
(1990). The grammar and images of aspect in Lowland Ecuadorean Quechua. University of Chicago (PhD thesis).
(1996). Sounds like life: Sound-symbolic grammar, performance, and cognition in Pastaza Quechua. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2001). Ideophones in Pastaza Quechua. In E. V. F. K. & C. Kilian-Hatz (Eds.), Typological Studies in Language: Ideophones (Vol. 441, pp. 271–285). John Benjamins Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014). Ideophones’ challenges for typological linguistics: The case of Pastaza Quichua. Pragmatics and Society, 5 (3), 355–383. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(n.d.-b). Huhi. In The Quechua Ideophonic Dictionary. Retrived October 10, 2020, from [URL]
(n.d.-c). Pu. In The Quechua Ideophonic Dictionary. Retreived April 4, 2020, from [URL]
(n.d.-d). Tsyun1. In The Quechua Ideophonic Dictionary. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from [URL]
(2012). Ideophones in bodily experiences in Pastaza Quichua (Ecuador). Proceedings of the Symposium on Teaching and Learning Indigenous Languages of Latin America, USA, (pp. 1–19).Google Scholar
Nuckolls, J. B., Browne, J., & Swanson, T. D. (2014). Quechua Real Words: An Audiovisual Corpus of Expressive Quechua Ideophones. [URL]
Nuckolls, J. B., Nielsen, E., Stanley, J. A., & Hopper, R. (2016). The systematic stretching and contracting of ideophonic phonology in Pastaza Quichua. International Journal of American Linguistics, 82 (1), 95–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nuckolls, J. B., & Swanson, T. D. (n.d.). Chun. In The Quechua Ideophonic Dictionary. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from [URL]
(2018). Respectable uncertainty and pathetic truth in Amazonian Quichua-speaking culture. In J. Proust & M. Fortier (Eds.), Metacognitive diversity: An interdisciplinary approach (pp. 171–192). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nuckolls, J. B., Swanson, T. D., Shelton, D., Rice, A., & Hatton, S. (2017). Lexicography in-your-face: The active semantics of Pastaza Quichua ideophones. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne de Linguistique, 62 (2), 154–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nuckolls, J. B., Swanson, T. D., & Spencer, B. R. (2015). Demonstrative deixis in two dialects of Amazonian Quichua. In M. S. Manley & A. Muntendam (Eds.), Quechua expressions of stance and deixis (pp. 75–100). Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Núñez, R. E., & Sweetser, E. (2006). With the future behind them: Convergent evidence from Aymara language and gesture in the crosslinguistic comparison of spatial construals of time. Cognitive Science, 30 (3), 401–450. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Rourke, E., & Swanson, T. D. (2013). Illustrations of the IPA: Tena Quichua. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1), 107–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orr, C. (1962). Ecuador Quichua phonology. In B. F. Elson (Ed.), Studies in Ecuadorian Indian languages I (pp. 60–77). Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma.Google Scholar
(1978). Dialectos quichuas del Ecuador. Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.Google Scholar
(1991). Vamos a aprender Quichua de Pastaza. In Cuadernos Etnolingüisticos (1st ed., Vol. 171). Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. [URL]
Orr, C., & Wrisley, B. (1981). Vocabulario quechua del oriente del Ecuador. In Serie de vocabularios indígenas del Ecuador (2nd ed., Vol. 111). Instituto Lingüistico de Verano en cooperación con el Ministerio de Educación Pública.Google Scholar
Reiter, S. (2014). Gestures in South American indigenous cultures. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1182–1192). De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rice, A. (2019). Ecuadorian Lowland Quechua collection of Alexander Rice. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, [URL]. Access: Restricted. PID Ailla: 269474. [URL]
(2020a). Northern Pastaza Kichwa (Ecuador and Peru) – Language Snapshot. Language Documentation and Description, 19 1, 181–196. [URL]
(2020b). Nothern Pastaza Kichwa SFHT gesture tokens. Open Science Framework. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rice, A., Dagua Toquetón, B. E., & Dagua Toquetón, B. J. (2019). qvz-BEDT Mundu Anga. Ecuadorian Lowland Quechua Collection of Alexander Rice. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, ailla.utexas.Org. Access: Public. PID Ailla:3A269528. [URL]
Rice, A., & Dagua Toquetón, B. J. (2019a). qvz-BJDT History of the Andoa. Ecuadorian Lowland Quechua Collection of Alexander Rice. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, ailla.utexas.Org. Access: Public. PID Ailla:3A269542. [URL]
(2019b). qvz-BJDT The Yutzu Bird. Ecuadorian Lowland Quechua Collection of Alexander Rice. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, ailla.utexas.org. Access: Public. PID Ailla:3A269564. [URL]
Rice, A., Dagua Toquetón, T. M., & Dagua Toquetón, B. J. (2019b). qvz-TMDT Adam and Eve. Ecuadorian Lowland Quechua Collection of Alexander Rice. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, ailla.utexas.org. Access: Public. PID Ailla:3A269572. [URL]
Rice, S. (2012). “Our language is very literal”: Figurative expression in Dene Sųłiné [Athapaskan]. In A. Idstrom & E. Piirainen (Eds.), Endangered Metaphors (pp. 21–76). John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014). Corporeal incorporation and extension in Dene Suliné (Athapaskan) lexicalization. In M. Brenzinger & I. Kraska-Szlenk (Eds.), The body in language: comparative studies of linguistic embodiment (pp. 71–97). Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2017). The study of indigenous languages. In B. Dancygier (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 38–58). Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sandoval, R. (2014). Gestures in native Northern America: Bimodal talk in Arapaho. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, pp. 1215–1226). De Gruyter, Inc. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A. (1998). Body torque. Social Research, 65 (3), 535–596. [URL]
Schoonjans, S. (2018). Modalpartikeln als multimodale Konstruktionen: Eine korpusbasierte Kookkurrenzanalyse von Modalpartikeln und Gestik im Deutschen. De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shapero, J. (2014). Gestures in native South America: Ancash Quechua. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. Ladewig, D. McNeill, & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (Vol. 21, Issue 2014, pp. 1193–1206). De Gruyter, Inc. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stokoe, W. C. (1960). Sign language structure. Buffalo University Press.Google Scholar
Swanson, T. D. (n.d.). Iyarinapamba [YouTube Channel]. Retrieved September 9, 2019, from [URL]
(2016, August 11). Bélgica Dagua: Origin of wooly monkeys [Video]. YouTube. [URL]
(2017, January 1). Eulodia Dagua: Toucan song for a girl no one wants [Video]. YouTube. [URL]
(2020, April 4). Delicia Dagua, “On the Disappearance of White-lipped Peccaries.” [Video]. YouTube. [URL]
(2021a, August 16). Bélgica Dagua, ’Deer Papaya: A Grandfather Returns as a Deer [Video]. YouTube. [URL]
(2021b, August 16). Delicia Dagua: Tsumi warmi narrative and song [Video]. YouTube. [URL]
(2021c, August 16). Eulodia Dagua: Widowed toucans sing love songs [Video]. YouTube. [URL]
(2021d, August 16). How communities used to drink wholesomely [Video]. YouTube. [URL]
(2021e, August 16). Luisa Cadena: How lila used umu palm perfume [Video]. YouTube. [URL]
Talmy, L. (1975). Semantics and syntax of motion. In J. P. Kimball (Ed.), Syntax and Semantics (Vol. 41, pp. 181–238). Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Whitten, N. E. J. (1976). Sacha runa: Ethnicity and adaptation of Ecuadorian Jungle Quichua. University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Zima, E. (2017). Multimodal constructional resemblance: The case of English circular motion constructions. In F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, A. L. Oyón, & P. Pérez Sobrino (Eds.), Constructing Families of Constructions (pp. 301–337). John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar