Reviewed by Engin Arik, Isik University

When we speak, we sometimes gesture, and sometimes we gesture while not speaking, but what is gesture and how can it be analyzed? This book provides answers to these questions. The book, translated by Mary M. Copple, consists of a foreword, acknowledgments, an introduction, ten chapters, a conclusion, references, two appendices, a postscript, and person and subject indices. The book has a website that includes videos of the seventy-five gesture examples. I highly recommend this book to anyone studying gesture because it is one of the most informative works on gestures.

The introductory chapter (1–8) outlines the book where the author defines gesture as ‘the visible movement of any body part that one makes in order to communicate’ (2) having semiotic potential. In Ch. 1, ‘The gestural sign and related key concepts’ (9–34), the author argues that gestures originate in our experience with the physical world, such as the way we handle an instrument, and representational gestures can contain multiple meanings in discourse.

The remaining chapters are organized into four parts. Part 1 ‘The functions of gesture in relation to speech’ consists of two chapters. Ch. 2, ‘The demarcative function of gesture’ (37–55) discusses the functions of gesture accompanying speech. The author convincingly shows that changes in co-speech gestures can cooccur with rhythmic changes in speech. Ch. 3, ‘Identifying the referential function of gesture’ (57–71), focuses more on manual gestures and shows that these gestures can express meaning of concepts and ideas in speech.

Part 2, ‘The systematic organization of gestural signs’, consists of two chapters. Ch. 4, ‘Classification of referential gestures according to their priority components’ (75–100), identifies physical characteristics of bodily gestures such as configuration, orientation, movement, and localization of a body part with regard to meaning in context. Ch. 5, ‘Systematic analysis to identify gestural signs’ (101–24), targets how to identify and code relevant components of gestures in data and establish links between gestures and meaning.

Part 3, ‘The symbolic relations between gestures and notions’, consists of three chapters. Ch. 6, ‘Different gestures represent one notion: Variation’ (127–62), discusses how a single concept can be expressed by gestures in various ways whereas Ch. 7, ‘One gesture represents different notions’ (163–95), discusses to what extent a single gesture expresses several concepts. Ch. 8, ‘The analogical links between gestures and notions’ (197–242), shows how to establish meaning relations between gestures and concepts that can have multiple forms.

Part 4, ‘The gestural sign in utterance’, consists of two chapters. Ch. 9, ‘The gestural sign and speech’ (245–85), examines gestures and speech according to their temporal order. Some gestures occur before speech, some during, and others yet after speech. Finally, some gestures add information to the message. Ch. 10, ‘Gesture, thought and speech’ (287–341), argues that gestures represent both concrete and abstract thought.