Gestural Abstraction and Restatement: From Iconicity to Metaphor

摘要

The question of abstraction and metaphor in gesture is particularly controversial. Some scholars such as David McNeill, who first introduced this concept for gestures in a systematic way, think that gesture can convey abstract meaning and metaphoric thought, while others believe that gestures can only be considered to be iconic representations. This question will be addressed here by means of an analysis of cases of "on-line" abstraction in the gestural production concurrent with restatements of path descriptions.