Forward-Gesturing

This paper discusses hand-gestures that serve as incipient and premonitory components of communicative actions and components of such actions. Gestures are examined with respect to the position in emerging turns and sequences of talk where they are made: before and at turn-beginning, in mid-turn, and during moments of turn-completion; and the projections that they make at these positions are delineated. Hand-gestures and their positioning relative to unfolding units of talk exemplify how the multimodality of the human body serves in the coordination of social action and the achievement of intersubjectivity.