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Publication details

Verlag: Springer

Ort: Berlin

Jahr: 1983

Pages: 153-164

ISBN (Hardback): 9781461593300

Volle Referenz:

Adam Kendon, "The study of gesture", in: Semiotics 1981, Berlin, Springer, 1983

Abstrakt

The modern word "gesture" is derived from a Latin root gerere which means "to bear or carry, to take on oneself, to take charge of, to perform or to accomplish." It derives more immediately from a Mediaeval Latin word "gestura" which means "way of carrying" or "mode of action" (Partridge, 1959) and in its earliest uses in English it referred to the manner of carrying the body, bodily bearing or deportment. Somewhat later it came to be used in Rhetorical treatises to refer to the way in which the body was to be employed in the making of speeches and this usage included, of course, the specific actions of the limbs and face that, nowadays, we usually have in mind when the term "gesture" is used. It is probably through a specialization of this usage that the modern meaning derived.

Publication details

Verlag: Springer

Ort: Berlin

Jahr: 1983

Pages: 153-164

ISBN (Hardback): 9781461593300

Volle Referenz:

Adam Kendon, "The study of gesture", in: Semiotics 1981, Berlin, Springer, 1983