Sequential Structures of Gestures in Adjacency Pairs

Abstract

This paper considers examples of gestures enacted by the first speaker in an adjacency pair and a post-expansion. In these simple examples, the gesture continued until the first speaker enacted the sequence-closing third. In examples illustrating the organization of dispreference, the time structure of the gestures is coordinated with the utterances of both first and second speakers: prolonged gestures by the first speaker are delayed, mitigated, or elaborated according to the structure of the second pair. When preferred responses are elaborated and rendered more complex, gestures can be elaborated according to the structure of the responses. We discuss the properties of a grand gesture, which is produced by an utterance of one party and continued over multiple turns, in order to reconsider the speaker-hearer framework.