%0 Journal Article %A Streeck, Jürgen %T The emancipation of gestures %D 2021 %J Interactional Linguistics %V 1 %N 1 %P 90-122 %@ 2666-4224 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/il.20013.str %K gesture %K grammaticalization %K evolution %K conceptualization %K interaction %I John Benjamins %X Abstract

Interactional linguists are interested in ways in which communicative resources emerge from interactional practice. This paper defines a place for the study of gesture within interactional linguistics, conceived as ‘linguistics of time’ (Hopper, 2015). It shows how hand gestures of a certain kind – conceptual gestures – emerge from ‘hands-on’ instrumental actions, are repeated and habitualized, and are taken to other communicative contexts where they enable displaced reference and conceptual representation of experiences.

The data for this study is a video-recording of one work-day of an auto-shop owner (Streeck, 2017). The corpus includes auto-repair sequences in which he spontaneously improvises new gestures in response to situated communication needs, and subsequent narrative sequences during which he re-enacts them as he explains his prior actions. He also makes numerous ‘pre-fabricated’ gestures, gestures that circulate in the society at large and that are acquired by copying other conversationalists. They are ready-made manual concepts. The paper explains the life-cycle of conceptual gestures from spontaneous invention to social sedimentation and thereby sheds light on the ongoing emergence of symbolic forms in corporeal practice and intercorporeal communication. %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/il.20013.str