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Pragmatics and its Interfaces
Edited by Cornelia Ilie and Neal R. Norrick
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 294] 2018
► pp. 163–184

The interface between pragmatics and gesture studies

| Saarland University, Germany

This chapter considers the interface between pragmatics and gesture studies, focusing on the dynamics of communication and interaction as people engage in language use. It presents a systematic linguistic study of the relationship of speech, gesture, and eye gaze. Based on face-to-face interactions, pragmatic topics, such as cohesion and repetition, will be revisited to investigate speech, gesture, and gaze in context. It will be demonstrated how interactants create and maintain joint action, how they engage in F-formations to negotiate steps within an interaction space and to contribute to activities. The chapter aims at establishing a pragmatic perspective on gesture and gaze in context to supplement and extend previous gesture-based research and to derive new implications for the study of human communication.

Keywords: pragmatics, gesture studies, pointing gesture, gaze, cohesion, reference, co-referential chains, repetition, stance taking
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Pragmatics and the study of gesture
  • 3.The data
  • 4.Cohesion and reference
    • 4.1Para level reference
    • 4.2Meta level reference
  • 5.Repetition
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 September 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.294.08per
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