From left to right...: Coverbal gestures and their symbolic use of space
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Geneviève Calbris
Abstract
This study overlaps with Johnson’s (1987) ideas about the image schemas underlying thought, but rather than grasping them through the deductive analysis of verbal metaphors, they are approached here through the analysis of the symbolic components of gestures which, accompanying speech, refer to abstract entities. The corpus analyzed was compiled from six television interviews with the French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin. The interviews averaged thirty minutes and took place over a one-year period. Only symbolic variations along the transverse axis, which is both symmetrical and oriented, are studied. The transverse axis appears to encompass several symbolic axes: a value axis, a spatio-temporal axis, and a logico-temporal axis, themselves derived from the axes of physical progression, which are growth, walking, and writing. A fourth, two-directional symbolic axis depicting an evolving process is added to the above. Successive translations of the upward and forward axes on to the rightward axis, achieved for contextual or ergonomic reasons, are mentally possible, since all three are axes of physical progression. This projection on to the side-toside axis accounts for the semiologically motivated complexity of the symbolic system represented on this major axis.
Abstract
This study overlaps with Johnson’s (1987) ideas about the image schemas underlying thought, but rather than grasping them through the deductive analysis of verbal metaphors, they are approached here through the analysis of the symbolic components of gestures which, accompanying speech, refer to abstract entities. The corpus analyzed was compiled from six television interviews with the French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin. The interviews averaged thirty minutes and took place over a one-year period. Only symbolic variations along the transverse axis, which is both symmetrical and oriented, are studied. The transverse axis appears to encompass several symbolic axes: a value axis, a spatio-temporal axis, and a logico-temporal axis, themselves derived from the axes of physical progression, which are growth, walking, and writing. A fourth, two-directional symbolic axis depicting an evolving process is added to the above. Successive translations of the upward and forward axes on to the rightward axis, achieved for contextual or ergonomic reasons, are mentally possible, since all three are axes of physical progression. This projection on to the side-toside axis accounts for the semiologically motivated complexity of the symbolic system represented on this major axis.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
- Why study metaphor and gesture? 5
- From left to right...: Coverbal gestures and their symbolic use of space 27
- Gesture as a conceptual mapping tool 55
- A fresh look at the foundations of mathematics: Gesture and the psychological reality of conceptual metaphor 93
- Peircean semiotics meets conceptual metaphor: Iconic modes in gestural representations of grammar 115
- Unexpected metaphors 155
- Catchment, growth point and spatial metaphor: Analysing Derrida's oral discourse on deconstruction 171
- Form, meaning, and convention: A comparison of a metaphoric gesture with an emblem 195
- What gestures reveal about the nature of metaphor 219
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Commentaries on the value of studying metaphor and gesture from the perspectives of different disciplines
- Metaphoric gesture and cognitive linguistics 249
- Metaphoric gestures and cultural analysis 253
- Metaphor and gesture: A view from the microanalysis of interaction 259
- Implications of cognitive metaphor and gesture studies for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis and vice versa 265
- Sign and gesture: Towards a new paradigm 273
- The study of metaphor and gesture: A critique from the perspective of semiotics 277
- The neuroscience of metaphoric gestures: Why they exist 283
- Metaphor and gesture: Some implications for psychology 291
- Index 303
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
- Why study metaphor and gesture? 5
- From left to right...: Coverbal gestures and their symbolic use of space 27
- Gesture as a conceptual mapping tool 55
- A fresh look at the foundations of mathematics: Gesture and the psychological reality of conceptual metaphor 93
- Peircean semiotics meets conceptual metaphor: Iconic modes in gestural representations of grammar 115
- Unexpected metaphors 155
- Catchment, growth point and spatial metaphor: Analysing Derrida's oral discourse on deconstruction 171
- Form, meaning, and convention: A comparison of a metaphoric gesture with an emblem 195
- What gestures reveal about the nature of metaphor 219
-
Commentaries on the value of studying metaphor and gesture from the perspectives of different disciplines
- Metaphoric gesture and cognitive linguistics 249
- Metaphoric gestures and cultural analysis 253
- Metaphor and gesture: A view from the microanalysis of interaction 259
- Implications of cognitive metaphor and gesture studies for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis and vice versa 265
- Sign and gesture: Towards a new paradigm 273
- The study of metaphor and gesture: A critique from the perspective of semiotics 277
- The neuroscience of metaphoric gestures: Why they exist 283
- Metaphor and gesture: Some implications for psychology 291
- Index 303
