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Language: en

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Linguistics isn’t just the study of
words or sounds:

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it’s the study of all the parts of conversation.

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That includes gesture analysis, which looks
at “co-speech gestures”:

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not posture or gaze,
but winking, or sticking out your tongue,

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or how arms and hands move alongside speech.

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Just to be clear, this isn’t about
sign languages:

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those are systematic and rule-governed with
elaborate syntax and vocabulary.

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Signed languages are language, but gestures
are “paralinguistic”.

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They accompany language.

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Gesture analysts make their job easier by
talking about different categories of gestures,

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which explain how they relate to meaning.

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And those are:

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Number one: Iconic.

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These gestures represent a literal object,

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such as a flat surface, or
a car weaving through traffic.

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Number two: Metaphoric.

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Gestures that symbolize an abstract concept,

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like “before” and “after”,
or “working together”.

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I do this a lot, and on this greenscreen those
metaphoric gestures

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become a bit more literal with the help of
graphics.

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Apologies to my animator.

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Three: Deictic.

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That’s pointing to things,

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positioning yourself to people,
or places or things,

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like pointing behind the camera
or ‘over there’.

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Number four: Pragmatic.

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Like offering the floor to someone,

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or "don't bother me right now".

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And finally, Beat.

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The rhythm of gestures alongside the
natural stress patterns of speech.

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All these categories--

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I’m really self-conscious about every move
I’m making now.

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These categories can coexist as well:

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often gestures that are performed ‘on beat’
also fit into another category.

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There’s one more type of gesture that serves
a slightly different purpose: emblems.

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Emblems are named gestures that don’t have
to occur alongside speech to have meaning.

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Like “thumbs up”.

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It has a meaning outside of
the context of speech:

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in a lot of the world, you can flash someone
the thumbs up

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and they'll almost certainly understand that
you're signalling approval,

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or that everything's okay.

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But if you swap the fingers,
it doesn’t have the same meaning.

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And even If I stick with the thumb,

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if I change angle and arm position,

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I’m trying to hitch-hike.

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The form of the gesture is tied
to the established meaning.

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It’s an emblem.

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Which means it’s not universal.
The meaning is learned.

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And context can change it.

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That thumbs up?

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In some countries, it used to be rude,

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but because of globalization, that’s no
longer the common reading there.

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Although there will be people who remember its
rude history

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and could still interpret it
the way.

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Emblems can change definition over time,
they can be created, they can be forgotten.

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I would demonstrate that by dabbing,

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but I don’t want a GIF of that to
haunt me for the rest of my life.

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So why do we do it?

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What does gesturing actually accomplish?

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Well, first: redundancy for
decoding and encoding errors.

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Languages have agreement all over the place:
there’s redundancy baked into everything.

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Spoken language is ephemeral.

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Once something is said, it's gone.

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Those sound waves have moved on
and they are not coming back.

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Gesture is another form of redundancy:

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it doesn't matter if a loud [engine noise]
drove by at just the wrong time–

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you may have figured out a vague idea
of what was being said.

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Next, you can show emphasis and importance.

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Or if you’re explaining an abstract concept,

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using metaphoric gestures to visibly explain
things can help make it clear --

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either to your conversation partner, or just
in your own head.

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And sometimes, it is so much easier
and clearer just to point.

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Gestures are important to communication,

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and so important that if our
hands and arms are unavailable,

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we will use our head, our eyes,
our other limbs to compensate.

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Gestures can also show
understanding of social norms.

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If you’re embarrassed to say something,

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you can make that clear by covering your face
or your eyes,

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or by doing the move that looks like

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"there are no paper towels or hand dryers
in this bathroom so

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"I guess I'll just shake ’em dry".

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Or if you want to distance yourself from what
you’re saying you can use scare quotes,

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or you can put a boundary around yourself.

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Gestures also seem to help us
get the words out in the first place.

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That's why people gesture even when
they’re on the phone,

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and why people who have been
blind since birth gesture.

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Gesture is intrinsic to language.

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It helps us communicate more effectively and
more elaborately,

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and to pass on information and feelings that
are difficult to put into words.

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Gestures are basically emoji
for the real world.

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One of my co-authors, Gretchen McCulloch,
has a book called Because Internet,

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all about internet language.

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You can find out more at the links
in the description.