Abstract
The article develops the idea of speech and gesture as an integral system of generation of meaning viewing an individual’s cognitive system as a dynamic, evolving semantic lattice organising semantic items of propositional and imagistic modes around a core meaning: linguistic items (propositions) are linked to ideas, concepts and beliefs as well as to specific feelings, mental states, images of gestures and stereotypic patterns of behaviour. Since gesture and speech are equally engaged in generation of meaning, they are treated in terms of gesture-verbal utterances as minimal material carriers of semantic content, activating the semantic lattice. According to the sphere of human consciousness / sub-consciousness which is basically ‘responsible’ for their production and interpretation, gesture-verbal utterances are divided into rational classifying / qualifying (activating semantic structure to provide information, helping classify or qualify the referents of the utterances), emotional (activating emotional attitudes) and suggestive (activating no semantic content but organising narration over large spans). Rational gesture-verbal utterances are further classified on the basis of the semiotic principle, governing the gestural activation of semantic structure, into deictic (pointing to the referent), iconic (depicting the referent) and symbolic (standing for the referent) and also into literal and metaphoric in accordance with the image-realistic or image-schematic principle of depicting the referent.
Highlights
Though scientific research on communicative value of nonverbal behaviour started as early as 1872 with the publication of Ch
The primary objective of this paper is to develop the idea of speech and gesture as an integral system of generation of meaning with the heuristic apparatus provided by Hardy’s advanced cognitive theory of semantic constellations (1998) which bridges the gap between cognitive semantics, with its schemas and semantic networks, and modern process-oriented cognitive science
It is argued here that gesture and speech form an integral system of generation of meaning, functioning as gesture-verbal utterances, i.e. material carriers of semantic content that activate semantic lattice, organising semantic structure of propositional and imagistic modes around the activated semantic content
Summary
Though scientific research on communicative value of nonverbal behaviour started as early as 1872 with the publication of Ch. Since nonverbal behaviour has been looked upon as a special semiotic code, separate from the code of spoken language. Paradoxical as it may seem, at the same time, nonverbal behaviour has still been interpreted in the same terms of ‘coding/decoding’ as linguistic signs. 4) since gesture and speech make up an integrated system of meaning expression. The primary objective of this paper is to develop the idea of speech and gesture as an integral system of generation of meaning with the heuristic apparatus provided by Hardy’s advanced cognitive theory of semantic constellations (1998) which bridges the gap between cognitive semantics, with its schemas and semantic networks, and modern process-oriented cognitive science. It is argued here that gesture and speech form an integral system of generation of meaning, functioning as gesture-verbal utterances, i.e. material carriers of semantic content that activate semantic lattice, organising semantic structure of propositional and imagistic modes around the activated semantic content
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