Funkcje emblematów w strukturze dialogu

Abstract

Functions of emblems in the structure of a dialogue

So far, emblems have been considered a consistent and speech-independent gesture code. This paper attempts to track the function that they play in a natural dialogue. The footage we used to study emblematic gestures, contained such TV programmes where participants can be observed in the situation of unrehearsed dialogue, as it is then that the function of their emblematic gestures is enriched with additional elements such as a mental rapprochement of the interlocutors, and modifications of the syntactic flow of utterances. During the dialogue, speakers might also create new gestural illustrators which can become the seeds of new emblems. The paper also signals a new category of gestures, emotion icons, that were not recognized in previous classifications. Unlike the already known emotion indicators, they do not so much indicate the emotional state of the speaker, as mimic it in a gesture, and are an iconic expression that can even transform into an emblem of the given emotion.