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Article published In:
Metaphor and the Social World
Vol. 12:1 (2022) ► pp.23–45

Gestural metaphorical scenarios and coming out narratives

| Adam Mickiewicz University

This article extends the framework of metaphorical scenarios proposed by Musolff (2006, 2016) by adding a gestural component. Coming out videos, serving as the source of data for the present analysis, help to uncover the conceptual mechanisms that shape the understanding and conceptualisation of this phenomenon. The extended framework of gestural metaphorical scenarios reveals that conceptual metaphors create cognitively and communicatively coherent wholes that are expressed multimodally, via speech and gesture. The article proposes that coming out, a highly individualised process, is conceptualised at various levels by both generic and specific metaphors. The analysis shows that metaphorical variation is present not only at the level of lexical scenarios, but also at the level of gesture, giving rise to multimodal discourse fragments. The extended framework, therefore, might be useful in analysing multimodal discourse.

Keywords: gestural metaphorical scenario, conceptual metaphor, gesture, multimodality, coming out
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Selection procedure
    • 1.2Ethics of the study
  • 2.Metaphoricity and gesture
    • 2.1Conceptual metaphor theory and multimodality
    • 2.2Metaphorical scenarios
  • 3.Gesture: Definitions and functions
    • 3.1Features of gestural metaphorical scenarios
      • 3.1.1Mode of expression
      • 3.1.2Level of control
      • 3.1.3Role in discourse structure
      • 3.1.4Role in conceptualisation
        • Metaphorical variation
        • Variation within gestural metaphorical scenarios
        • Variation in gesture form
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 11 February 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.20023.dyr
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