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Part of
Why Gesture?: How the hands function in speaking, thinking and communicating
Edited by Ruth Breckinridge Church, Martha W. Alibali and Spencer D. Kelly
[Gesture Studies 7] 2017
► pp. 3–10

Chapter 1
Understanding gesture

Description, mechanism and function

Gestures offer additional information that is not captured in speech. This essential finding is a bouncing off point for the chapters in this book, which attempt to explain what purpose gesture serves when we speak, think and communicate. Aristotle’s framework is used to describe how the research on gesture can be classified into efficient causes (what factors drive gesture) and final causes (what purpose does gesture potentially serve). The chapters of the book are laid out by research that examines how gesture functions in language and thinking for the producer (Part 1) and the observer (Part 2) with a final section that discusses some theoretical implications (Part 3).
Article outline
  • Mechanisms of gesture
  • Functions for gesture
  • Structure of the book
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.7.01kel
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Iriskhanova, Olga, Maria Kiose, Anna Leonteva & Olga Agafonova
2023. Multimodal languaging: Reification profiles in language and gesture. Linguistic Frontiers 6:2 ► pp. 78 ff. DOI logo
Macuch Silva, Vinicius, Judith Holler, Asli Ozyurek & Seán G. Roberts
2020. Multimodality and the origin of a novel communication system in face-to-face interaction. Royal Society Open Science 7:1 ► pp. 182056 ff. DOI logo
Mathayas, Nitasha, David E. Brown, Robert C. Wallon & Robb Lindgren
2019. Representational gesturing as an epistemic tool for the development of mechanistic explanatory models. Science Education 103:4 ► pp. 1047 ff. DOI logo
Vest, Nicholas A., Emily R. Fyfe, Mitchell J. Nathan & Martha W. Alibali
2020. Learning from an avatar video instructor. Gesture 19:1 ► pp. 128 ff. DOI logo
Zheng, Annie, Yukari Hirata & Spencer D. Kelly
2018. Exploring the Effects of Imitating Hand Gestures and Head Nods on L1 and L2 Mandarin Tone Production. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 61:9 ► pp. 2179 ff. DOI logo

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