Abstract
The paper provides the results of the analysis of recurrent gestures (palm-up-open-hand and palm-down-open-hand) used in Russian spoken explanatory discourse. It is argued that mimetic schemas which imitate various manipulations with objects and are directly linked to embodied cognition, can be used as efficient tools for cognitive analyses of gesture variation. Following a set of formal criteria (configuration of the palm, a static / dynamic phase in the stroke, direction of the hand movement, boundedness or unboundedness of a gesture), the authors differentiate between general and specific mimetic schemas that form the cognitive basis for the palm-up-open-hand and the palm-down-open-hand gestures and their variants (subtypes). With the help of qualitative and quantitative methods and procedures, correlation between cognitive (mimetic) and functional features of the gestures is investigated. The authors demonstrate that there is significant difference in distribution of the mimetic PUOH and PDOH schemas and their subtypes, and there is direct and strong correlation between the mimetic schemas and the functions realized through them in the explanatory discourse.
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