Hand Gestures in Storytelling

This study examined the hand gestures speakers use during face-to-face storytelling, the role the gestures play in the storytelling process, and the ways in which verbal utterances and hand gestures are combined. Considering the relationship between utterance content and hand gestures, the storytelling structure was divided into four levels, and the pattern of hand gesture use was examined at each level and when moving between levels. Results showed that speakers reproduced the scenes unfolding in their mental space mainly through metaphorical hand gestures. They signaled storytelling structure level and scene changes with or without hand gestures and navigated through changes by using hand gestures. The hand gestures speakers use while speaking play a role in overcoming the limitations of verbal utterances, such as incompleteness of form and gaps in meaning. Hand gestures also play a role in segmenting temporally continuous verbal utterances to form units of meaning.