What gestures do: some communicative functions of quotable gestures in conversations among black urban South Africans

Abstract

Using video-recordings of spontaneous conversations among black urban South Africans, the use of three quotable gestures/emblems is analyzed. Questions related to the emergence of quotable gestures in terms of origin, conventionalization and detachability from speech, the relationship of quotable gestures to other forms of gesture, and the categorization of gestures into gestural typologies are also addressed.