ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter begins with a general discussion of the use of different types of hand movements in conversational discourse. The gestures that are of interest in this book are those hand movements which bear no conventional form and meaning, and which convey semantic information with speech. Two central issues are addressed – How do language and gesture represent the semantic information of various types of ideas? And, how do the linguistic representation and gestural depiction pattern temporally in the communication of cross-modal information? The empirical findings of the study are significant in revealing the nature of bǐshǒu-shuōhuà, literally ‘to use hands (to make gestures) and to talk’, in the communication of meaning.
