Language, culture, and gesture

In everyday interaction, language and gesture are conceived as modalities that form an integrated system, as interwoven components of an utterance’s construction that may be orchestrated in line with each other or complementarily, depending on the corresponding occasion ( Kendon 2004 ; McNeill 1992 ). The relationship among cognition, language, gesture, context, and interaction has traditionally been examined in a unidirectional manner, predominantly emphasizing the influence of cognition on gesture. Furthermore, the roles of cultural sedimentation and the cultural environment have been approached from various perspectives, yet seldom considered from a metaperspective. This study adopts a praxeological and phenomenological approach, positing that gestures are fundamentally actions that are both cognitive and communicative. They manifest as both ‘outer’ and ‘inner’ phenomena, being observable to others while simultaneously experienced internally. Gestures are adaptive to the environment and, in turn, help to structure it. Made by embodied individuals, gestures reflect their biographical experiences of inhabiting and understanding life-worlds, thereby exerting a reciprocal influence on cognition.