Semantics of “Shaking One’s Head” Gesture as a Unit of Russian Communicative System

Abstract

The study was carried out by the method of semantic communicative analysis, which the author expands to Russian kinesic means (pose, mimic, gesture). These means are regarded as units of communicative level which reflects the interconnection between the position of the speaker, the listener and situation. This system includes such elements as the purport, variative sets of constructions as well as the units these constructions are made of. These means are not only heterogeneous (in particular, they include both verbal and kinesic units), they are characterized by extramentality of meanings and require special methods of defining their semantic parameters. In the paper with the help of scientific instruments of the school of semantic communicative analysis, the invariant parameter of Russian “shaking one’s head” gesture is identified. The obtained results can form the basis of the vocabulary description of this gesture in the dictionaries of a new type. The article also covers the question of the functioning of “shaking one’s head” gesture within the artistic text, where it aquires an aesthetic charge.