Hand Movements

This article was a nice review of what we learned in class. Emblems are acts that
have a direct meaning which is generally accepted by a culture. So an example of
an emblem would be holding up your hand as a signal meaning Stop. Illustrators
are used along with verbal speech as emphasizers to a preexisting message;
however the article did mention that they can sometimes contradict the message.
An example of a contradicting illustrator is when a significant other says that they
are fine, but then cross their arms abruptly. Clearly they arent fine. Batons are used
to accent a particular word or phrase. For example, if someone were to say The
balloon went up because it was full of helium. And they point up when they say
the word up that would be a baton in action. As we learned in class already
Ideographs are used when giving directions, turn left at the zoo interchange would
be a common one you might hear. Deictic movements are used to reference a
specific item; this could be used during charades if you pretend to have an air
guitar. Spatial movements are harder to describe, I think a good example of this
would be describing a car accident and showing how much space was in between
the two people involved. Rhythmic movements almost always have to deal with
music, fist pumping used to be super popular, and that would be considered a
rhythmic movement. I dont think we learned about this next one but kinetographs
are used to depict an action done by the body, either human or not. An example for
this one would be pretending your arm is a trunk of an elephant. Pictographs are
used to outline a picture or shape in the air.
This article is much harder to relate to my life in that I never focus on the
hand motions I use when I talk, it is a natural part of conversation and therefore I
dont have to make a conscious effort to do it. The only thing I really think of when

talking about hand movements and communication is an episode of Family Guy

where the main character goes into an Italian restaurant and tries to speak Italian
with the owner. The bit was that anyone can speak Italian as long as they have a
mustache and wave their arms around as they talk. Although this is a cartoon, the
joke had to come from real life examples. I have never been to Italy but my parents
have for their 25th anniversary. So I asked my mother if they do indeed talk more
with their hands and she agreed that they do. For some reason in their culture
batons are far more popular when talking than in our own, I wonder why that is.