Gestures are everywhere in language and play a crucial role in communication, often serving as complements or substitutes for spoken words. These nonverbal cues play a vital role in conveying meaning, enhancing comprehension, and establishing connections between individuals across cultures and languages. The gestural work involved analyzes the intricate relationship between gestures and spoken language, a relationship that is contested in linguistics. This course investigates how gestures work in tandem with language to convey meaning, facilitate interaction, and contribute to the construction of cultural identity.

Throughout the course, students will examine various types of gestures, including deictic gestures, iconic gestures (concrete and metaphoric), beat gestures, emblems, and adaptors, and learn how they are used to convey different meanings. Students will also explore the universality of certain gestures and their cultural variations, highlighting the importance of context and cultural sensitivity in interpreting nonverbal cues.

This class includes 4 homework assignments and a final paper; it is ideal that students attend each lecture but we understand that things may come up. As such, lectures will be recorded and students are allowed 2 attendance drops.