Degrees of iconicity in gestures

Abstract This chapter investigates iconicity as a central principle underlying all types of gestures. Drawing on cognitive-semiotic frameworks, it examines how gestures function as embodied semiotic signs, integrating form, meaning, and abstraction. The chapter introduces modes of gestural representation as iconic techniques for depicting actions, objects, and motion, which underpin the distinction between character viewpoint and observer viewpoint gestures. The chapter argues that iconicity manifests in varying degrees across gesture types. Spontaneously created iconic and metaphoric gestures vividly reflect their depicted actions or entities, employing detailed forms that closely align with their embodied origins. In contrast, stabilized gestures, such as recurrent gestures, reduce iconic detail to prioritize pragmatic functions, whereas some emblematic gestures maintain a higher degree of iconicity, preserving distinct shapes while adapting to cultural conventions. The chapter concludes that iconicity exists along a continuum, encompassing both spontaneously created and conventionalized gestures, which range from highly iconic and complex depictions to iconically reduced forms.