Abteilung für Hochschulkommunikation

Vorlesungsreihe “Multifunctionality in gestural discourse markers”

Abstract: Gestural discourse markers (GDMs) are a subset of recurrent pragmatic gestures that convey stable discourse structural information across contexts (Laparle 2022). As with lexical discourse markers (LDMs), the meaning of GDMs can be difficult to pin down. To engage with this challenge, I focus on REMOVAL and STOPPING gestures (often grouped under the 'away' gesture family; Bressem & Muller 2014, 2017) which appear to convey both discourse structural (topic termination) and stance-taking (negative assessment) information. However, it is unclear whether this multifunctionality is inherent, incidental, or compositional. If it is inherent, then both the discourse structural and stance-taking information should always be conveyed. If the multifunctionality is incidental, then the gestures should be attributed a narrower meaning that happens to appear in contexts where the remaining meaning is inferable (e.g. topics are often ended because they are negatively assessed, but this need not be the case). Finally, if the multifunctionality is compositional, then particular formal properties (e.g. hand shape or movement) should map to particular aspects of meaning (e.g. Fricke 2014). By comparing the function of REMOVAL and STOPPING gestures to that of frequently co-occurring LDMs, I will argue for the final compositional approach.