Speech, gesture, and discourse

Abstract

In this article we argue that on‐line linguistic choices are made in a matrix of continuous discourse connections. We investigate the hypothesis that communicative dynamism (CD) is this representation of the whole in the parts. We view CD as a graded variable that can be measured only with respect to large stretches of discourse. Based on our analysis of extended narrative and conversational data, we find that CD directly correlates with the quantity of linguistic material devoted to a reference. We identify two strategies with which this is accomplished: one “constructive,” the other “anticipatory.” We find that gestures of the kind co‐occurring with speech also reflect the communicative status of the utterance. Initial positions of explicitly delineated narrative units are accompanied by more gestures (both pointing and “beats”). A similar phenomenon appears in a highly unstructured conversation, with pointing gestures accompanying initial references to topics. We interpret these correlations of the quantity of gesture and the quantity of linguistic referring material as reflecting an underlying unity of speech and gesture. Thought itself, Vygotsky (1962) argued, is the formation of psychological predicates—elements of discontinuity from the existing context. A speaker highlights these discontinuities by adding to the quantity and multiplying the avenues of departure from the context in both speech and gesture.