2
LIST OF TABLES
CHAPTER 1:
Table 1. Translation of the word gesture in different languages and periods (Modified from
Wandall 1976, p. 6)
Table 2. Outline of the most representative inventories of gestures
CHAPTER 2:
Table 3. Use of gesticulation in different cultures (from Efron 1941, p. 12)
Table 4. Qualitative results: emblems with identical primary interpretations in the two countries
Table 5. Qualitative results: emblems with different primary interpretations in the two countries
Table 6. Qualitative results: unrecognized emblems in Denmark
Table 7. Qualitative results: unrecognized emblems in the two countries
3
INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSES
"Gesture". This term has been connected to several definitions, some of which are more specific
and clear than others. A list of such definitions will primarily confuse the reader, making him still
uncertain about the interpretation of the term itself. To clarify the widespread understanding of the
word we will start from a general point of view, and end with the specific definition used in our
study.
In the Oxford English Dictionary (1961) the following definition is found: "A movement of the
body, or any part of it, expressive of thought or feeling". What does this definition involve?
body + movement => expression of thought / feeling
A body: any creature can use its body, or part of it (head, face, arms, hands, legs, feet, etc.) to
convey information.
A movement: the body or any part of it can perform movements even if they are hardly noticeable.
In a communicative interaction the result of the two factors expresses a message (a thought or a
feeling). Furthermore gestures are always directed to another individual, real or imaginary.
Even if this definition has been taken as starting point by several scientists (Cocchiara 1932;
Kendon 1981a), it is too broad and does not answer many questions. How can we specify which
kind of movements may be considered gestures and not just simple movements? Should a
meaningful movement, made while being alone, be considered to be a gesture or not? Should
gestures be considered to be accomplishments of word or not?
To give answers to these questions we have to make several assumptions. Two main categories of
gestures exist: 1) the gestures that accompany speech and 2) the gestures that can replace spoken
language. The first category regards the gestures used together with words, that facilitate the
understanding of a message; the second category refers to movement patterns with a precise
meaning, often used when we could speak but choose not to. Gestures falling in the last category
are called symbolic gestures or, using the definition given by Efron in 1941, emblematic gestures.
In our study, spoken words could represent elements of disturbance, wherefore only the second
category will be taken into consideration. (The first category has already been studied by the
author, Moraro 1990).
Our body is used every day to express feelings or thoughts. The most expressive parts of the body
used to gesticulate, however, are the hands and arms. Therefore our study considers the comparison
of gestures involving hands and arms.
Our definition of gesture is now being narrowed down: "An intentional movement of a hand or arm
to which a meaning is attributed, used as a substitute of spoken language in a communicative
interaction". The main point of this definition is that the gesture must have a meaning. From where
does this meaning come? As we have different languages in the world, how can we be sure about
the universality of gestural language? Perhaps an influence from country to country exists. This
sentence expresses the hypothesis of our study. We hypothesize that there is an influence from one
of the European countries considered to be "gestural", Italy, to another European country,
Denmark, which because it is Nordic is generally considered to be less gestural. So in the
4
experimental part of our study, the interpretation of 36 specific emblems by Danish and Italian
subjects, drawn by chance, will be considered.
Chapter 1 will give a review of available information connected to the word gesture: its supposed
place of birth, its evolution and development, with special attention to pantomime and Commedia
dell'Arte, and the correlation with Sign Language. A survey of all the methodology used in other
cross-cultural research will also be made. Chapter 2 will present relevant material pertaining to the
Danish and Italian cultures, the description of our empirical research, the results obtained and their
discussion. Chapter 3 will deal with the conclusion and future perspectives of such work.1
1
It is a common belief that “The abundance of both gesture and pantomime usually increases directly with the degree
of volubility, and racial characteristics are important in the connection. One recalls the wealth of emotional movement
displayed by the Latins, the Kelts and some Oriental races, in contrast to the poise and relative immobility of Nordic
peoples.” (Critchley 1939, p. 13).
5
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW
1.1 Historical review
1.1.1 Etymology of the word "gesture"
The word gesture, from the Latin "gestus(-us)" derives from "gero", "gerere" with the meaning "to
bring". We also found other terms related to the word gestus: "gesticulatio" and "gesticulator",
pejoratives of gestus, that translate the idea of immoral gestures. They are both associated with
unpopular social categories such as prostitutes and forgers. Verbs such as "gestire" and
"gesticulari" are also related to gesture (Schmitt 1990). The following table (table 1) shows the
translation of the word in different languages and periods.
Table 1. Translation of the word gesture in different languages and periods (Modified from
Wandall 1976, p. 6).
Area of Origin Epoch
Latin Nordic German
Antiquity gestus-a
atburor
gebarida
Middle Age gest gest
åtburd
17th Century geste geste åtbärd
gebärde
Modern French geste gestes
Modern Italian gesto gesti
Modern German gestusatburor
gebärde
Modern Danish/Nordic adbyrd/
åtbärd
gebærde
Another connected Latin word, "manus", is used to describe that part of the human body, the hand,
which, together with speech, distinguishes mankind from the beast. "Manus" is also found to have
been used by the Romans to identify and express states of emotion, and to indicate relationships
(Schmitt 1990, Brilliant 1963). The hands occupy a central role in the process of constructing
mutual intelligibility between total strangers (Collett 1982). We therefore completely agree with
Hacks when he asserts "On peut dire que l'humanitè c'est la paume de la main" [we can say that the
humanity lies in the palm of the hand] (Hacks 1892, p. 355).
1.1.2 Birth and development of "gesture"
Paintings, books, etc., can show the evolution of the gesture. In order to write a history of gestures
as Reinach (1924) says, we should collect millions of reproductions of works of art together with
their description. Proof of the use of the gesture in primitive dance as an important component of
the pictorial art can be found in the caves of late Palaeolithic era. The work of Schmitt (1984)
6
reports that the notion that some gestures "speak" (loquntur) and that they constitute a language,
already existed in antiquity. The gesture defined as "any action that sends a visual signal to an
onlooker" was first expressed in the Greek and Roman period. In ancient Greek literature the first
known example of gestural communication is to be found in Xenophon's "The March up Country".
The author here relates how thousands of Greeks, during their retreat across Asia Minor about 400
B.C., tried to communicate with Armenian boys by signs as if they were deaf and dumb (Collett
1982). In ancient Rome the art of gesture was called saltatio. Cicero distinguished between
"gestuosus" and "gesticulator" (who makes too many gestures); Quintilian defined the
"chirognomy" or art of gestures, and for both Cicero and Quintilian, gestural language was
universal and common to all people: "Ut in tanta per omnes gentes nationesque linguae diversitate
hic mihi omnium hominum communis sermo videatur" [In fact, though the peoples and nations of
the earth speak a multitude of tongues, they share in common the universal language of the hands]
(Quintilian 1856, p. 291). In ancient Greece and Rome, nonverbal communication was of great
importance to the orators (Lieth 1972/73) and to the artists. Gesture was in fact an intrinsic part of
public speaking and there were even certain rules to follow while speaking (Quintilian 1856).
Gestures were moreover part of the pantomimic art in theatre (Lieth 1967) when mimic and body
language were used together to describe other feelings than the real ones (Hansen & Holm 1974).
As a synonym of "sign", "gesture" was used at the time of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse (c. 400
B.C.). It seems that the Sicilians, under the tyranny of Dionysius, were compelled to elaborate a
gestural language to be able to communicate without words as public meetings were prohibited
(Fleming 1971). In works of art the symbolic gesture was used as a principal instrument of status
identification. Gestures were social acts and their significance was accessible to everyone. Some
Italian artists, in fact, considered it their task to make the figures of their painting speak through
gestures: researchers such as Gombrich and Barash have studied the use of gesture in art by Dante,
Leonardo da Vinci (Gombrich 1966), and Giotto (Barash 1987).
However, the earliest tradition concerned with the study of gestures is that associated with the
Classical and Medieval study of Rhetoric. In the Middle Ages, the rule of a monastic silence
justified the development of a true "gesturing language". In some circestian convents where the
silence was absolute, "codes des gestes" [gestural codes] were used (Berges 1968). The Middle
Ages civilization was therefore called a "civilization of gesture". In this period gesture was also of
great importance in social relationships. The reason for this importance has to be found in the
"weakness of the writing"; for serious matters writing and even speaking seemed less valuable than
nonverbal communication. Gesture was normally used to seal a contract. To make a gesture the
whole body had to co-operate, and at that time, the body was considered extremely important by
the Middle Ages Christianity. Within a community a gesture was able to define the type of
hierarchy in which two persons were allocated (Schmitt 1990).
The development of gestures finds an important place in the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte". It was
born in the 16th century and spread out to other European countries (e.g. France, Great Britain, and
Denmark). The Commedia dell'Arte introduced the use of the gesture in plays by particular and
original theatrical figures. The "gestus" was used as an important and essential part of the
"commediante" or player. This concept of gesture related to the playing art started different
analyses of the Commedia dell'Arte.
Studies were made concerning the relationship between gesture and mimic and pantomime, i.e.,
facial expression and movement of the body. A detailed analysis of the "Commedia dell'Arte" can
be found on p. 11, below.
7
Burke (1991) in his observations on gestures in the early modern Italy (c.1500-c.1800), postulates
that in that period interest in gestures increased over all Europe because of a "reform" of gestures
due to the rise of the northern stereotype of the gesticulating Italian, in particular in the northern
parts of Europe such as Britain and the Netherlands.
The earliest books on gestures appeared in fact at the beginning of the 17th century. In France, in
particular, gesture was seen as being of great relevance for the understanding of the natural origin
of language and the nature of thought. It was even considered to be a possible candidate for a
universal language (Knowlson 1965; Seigel et al. 1969). The first books devoted entirely to
gestures seem to be "Chirologia: or the Natural Language of the Hand..." (1644) written by John
Bulwer, a physician, and "L'arte de' cenni con la quale formandosi favella visibile si tratta della
muta eloquenza che non è altro che un facondo silentio" published by Giovanni Bonifacio, a
student of Renaissance rhetorical tradition in 1616. Both books considered gestures to be a
universal language. The first described hundreds of gestures of the hands and fingers and
introduced the idea of a sign language used by deaf people. The second one revealed the wide range
of ideas that could be expressed by the orator's gestures, and indicated that these gestures could
provide a highly efficient form of universal language. In 1775 Christian Bastholm wrote the first
Danish book reporting a chapter about gestures. In 1785 Johan Jakob Engel, a student of gestures,
compared gestural language to vocal language, proclaiming the superiority of the first to the latter.
In 1797 Vicenzo Requeno published "L'arte di gestire con le mani, scoperta della chironomia ossia
dell'arte di gestire con le mani" and in 1802 Gilbert Austin wrote the volume "Chironomia", a
collection of pictures representing positions and movements of the body reported to be used in the
oratory art.
The very first attempt at making an inventory of gestures, however, is the work by Andrea de Jorio
(1832) "La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano", which is a description of the
Neapolitan gesture seen as a derivation of the Greek and Roman gestures. For De Jorio gestural
language was the universal way of communication, through which different populations could
understand each other "L'uomo beve, mangia, parla e gesticola" [The human being drinks, eats,
talks and gesticulates]" (De Jorio, p. 50).
Later, anthropologists and psychologists became interested in gesture under the impact of Charles
Darwin's work "The expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" (1872). The first
experimental psychologists who devoted considerable attention to gesture, especially to the use of
gestures by the deaf, were Edward Burnett Tylor and Wilhelm Wundt, who made the study of
language and the study of gesture central points of their development (Tylor 1878; Wundt 1900).
In 1877 Giuseppe Pitre wrote a study about Sicilian mime, and in 1881, Garrick Mallery produced
a study regarding the study of gesture and the sign language of the North American Indians. From
1900 until today mention should be made of the works by Giuseppe Cocchiara (1932), Benedetto
Croce (1931, 1935) who analysed the philosophy of the gesture, Macdonald Critchley (1939)
recently criticized by Thomas Stokoe (1977), Charlotte Wolff (1948), Adam Kendon (1981a,
1981b, 1985), Poyatos (1983) and the cultural history of gesture by Jan Bremmer and Herman
Roodenburg (1991).2
In 1941 David Efron wrote a dissertation exploring the differences of movements during
conversation between two cultural groups (namely Southern Italian and Eastern European Jewish).
This study is very important as it leads to the first distinction between the different types of
2
For bibliographies and reviews of the literature on gesture see also Key (1977) and Davies & Skupien (1982).
8
gestures3 and particularly to the definition of the emblematic4 gestures. Paul Ekman and Wallace V.
Friesen later went deeply into the definition of those types of gesture, which they called emblems.
They defined an emblem as that nonverbal act
a) which has a direct verbal translation, consisting of a word or two, or a phrase,
b) whose definition is well known by all members of a group, clan or culture,
c) whose use by people is an intentional and deliberate effort to communicate,
d) for which the person(s) who sees the emblem usually not only knows the emblem's message but
also knows that it was deliberately sent to him,
e) for which the sender usually takes responsibility for having made that communication (Ekman
& Friesen 1972, p. 357).
Ekman and Friesen separated emblems from the other four forms of nonverbal behaviour: 1)
illustrator, or nonverbal movements that accompany verbal messages, 2) regulators , consisting of
such cues as eye contact, paralanguage and body movement, through which people signal their
conversational intentions, 3) affect display, specially related to facial expression and 4) adaptors ,
referring to acts related to the satisfaction of bodily needs (eg. scratching) (Ekman & Friesen
1969). Emblems, illustrators and adaptors can however be interchangeable. Lars von der Lieth
(personal communication 1991) has considered a triangular model which is able to clarify the
interactions between the types of gestures to be assembled in three categories: illustrators, emblems
and mannerisms5. For example, the V-sign is socially known as an emblem for victory but it can
however be used as an illustrator to explain situations and it has become a mannerism particular to
a person (i.e., Churchill).
Emblems can also be used to define if a person is lying. Ekman (1985) refers that when only a
fragment of an emblem is performed or when the emblem is performed out of the usual
presentation position (i.e., right out in front of the person, between the waist and the neck area), we
can presume that the person doing the action is lying.
Should emblems be considered learned or not? Arne F. Petersen (personal communication, 1991)
considers that human beings are born with certain basic forms of communication, found also in
non-human primates (for example greetings sign, requests sign, etc.). These, however, should not
be considered as emblems, because of their universality. The emblems considered by our study are
supposed to have been learned by individuals.
The methodology used in Efron's study and in other works regarding the type of emblematic
gestures will be mentioned in the next chapter. The investigations in question were those by Hirtsch
(1923), Saitz and Cervenka (1962), Brun (1969), Johnson, Ekman & Friesen (1972), Wylie (1977),
Morris et al. (1979), Monahan (1983), Safaldi & Valentine (1987), and Calbris (1990). In Italy the
3
“This type of gesture may in turn be (a) simply baton-like, representing a sort f “timing out” with the hand the
successive stages of the referential activity, (b) ideographic, in the sense that it traces or sketches out in the air the
“paths” and “directions” of the thought-pattern. The latter variety might also be called logico-topographic or logico-
pictorial. In the second case the “meaning” of the gesture is “objective”, and the movement may be (a) deictic, referring
by means of a sign to a visually present object (actual pointing), (b) physiographic, depicting either the form of a
visual o a spatial relationship (iconographic gesture), or that a bodily action (kinetographic gesture), (c) symbolic or
emblematic, representing either a visual or a logical object by means of a pictorial or a non-pictorial form which has no
morphological relationship to he thing represented”. (Efron 1941, p.70).
4
Besides Efron’s and Ekman’s identificative term, various terms have been proposed for these types og gestures such
as semiotic gestures (Barakat 1973), autonomous gestures (Kendon 1983).
5
“The “mannerism of speech” should include gestures and all kinds of bodily movements which accompany, argument
or substitute for speech” (Feldmann 1979, p.197). Here mannerism is however considered a particularity, special to a
person (Nielsen 1962).
9
most important studies are those by Munari (1958), Ricci-Bitti (1976), Carpitella (1976, 1982), and
Gaudeau (1983). In Denmark they are by Palmquist (1972), Martinussen & Lynge Nielsen (1972),
Lieth (1973), Lynge Nielsen (1973), and From (1973), all collected in Enggaard (1978). One result
of the Danish research is that Danish people use a considerable number of emblems.
As Cicourel asserts "Gestural systems, like oral systems, seem to have normative features peculiar
to a particular culture. Hence the nonverbal forms used by the hearing people in a particular culture
can be related to the gestural forms developed by the deaf." (Cicourel 1974, p. 35-36). Gestures
have also been considered as part of the sign languages used by the deaf. Thus Cuxac (1979)
hypothesized that the deaf used to use pantomime while communicating, but because pantomime
was such a time-consuming system, they started to insert gestures originating from their
surroundings. Gestures and signs are however different. A sign is a manually-produced visual
symbol, which is analogous to words as used in spoken language. A sign language consists of a
system of signs. Signs, however, follow grammatical rules while gestures do not. In sign language
each letter, or word, of a written language is represented by a particular configuration of the fingers
so that any message can be "finger-spelled" as in the written version of the language. As words can
be analysed into phonemes, so signs can be analysed into what Stokoe (1960) called cheremes.
These cheremes can identify the configuration of the hand or hands making the sign, the place
where the sign is made, and the action of the hand or hands.
Lieth (Lieth et al. 1991) describes the difference between emblems and a constructed gestural
language (i.e., sign language). The main difference is the fact that emblems consist of social
symbols but they do not have a grammar, they are expressions of the "præverbal kommunikation"
[pre-verbal communication]6. On the contrary sign languages are to be considered languages
because of their well structured grammatical bases. A similar opinion has been also reported by
Ekman (1976): "Words are typically employed during conversation in strings or sequences,
governed by a syntax.
American sign language and Indian sign language also usually involve the emission of a string of
signs. Emblems are usually not employed during conversation in strings, but singly." (Ekman
1976, p. 22).
For the deaf population the question has always been how to communicate with the hearing world.
The deaf people have developed a sign language for their internal communication within the group
but only few hearing people have known this language. Even if the sign language of deaf people is
not well documented until the 19th century, Grimandi (1960) reports that the first types of teaching
methods for deaf people are found in the 16th century. Quigley (1969) reports that the first person
recorded to have undertaken the teaching of deaf students was Pedro Ponce DeLeon, a Spanish
monk who was born in 1520. Unfortunately we do not have detailed records of his methods. In
1620 Juan Martin Pablo Bonet started the teaching of a one-handed manual alphabet where finger
and hand positions representing the letters of the alphabet were associated with the printed letters.
Bulwer's previously mentioned volume (1644) is, however, the first one to introduce the idea of a
sign language used in England. In the same period George Dalgarno (1661) transcribed the first
manual alphabet.
6
Lieth (in Lieth et al. 1991) defines four different types of behaviour patterns : “Ikke-
kommunikativ adfærd” [Non communicative behavior], “Nonverbal kommunikation” [Nonverbal
communication], “Nonverbal kommunikation i forbindelse med tale” [Nonverbal communication
related to speech] and “Præverbal kommunikation gennem gestus” [Preverbal communication
through gesture].
10
The tradition in the schools for the deaf has had two sources. The first one goes back to Abbè‚
Charles Michel de l'Epèe who established the first school for the deaf in Paris in 1755 and his
"French Method". De l'Epèe's philosophy was that deaf people must be able to communicate with
the hearing society by means of the written language. He therefore trained his pupils in reading and
writing and, as a mean to learn this, he utilized the language which his pupils already had: the sign
language, but he changed it so that it also contained special signs for grammatical purposes.
De l'Epèe is credited with having developed and systematized many signs himself (De l'Epeè
1776). For de l'Epèe the sign language was a mean, not a goal. We see the same idea in "Signed
English", a signing system developed by Bornstein (reported in Crystal & Craig 1978). For the
deaf community today though the sign language is a goal in itself as a full language and the
connection to the written/spoken language is rather that these form a second language for the deaf
child.
The other tradition in the schools for the deaf came from Samuel Heinicke in Leipzig around 1788
and was called the "German Method" or the "Oral Method". Heinicke's aim was to make the deaf
person also able to communicate with the hearing society, but he elected the spoken language as his
mean and therefore trained his pupils in lipreading and articulation. In his system sign language
was a distraction because it was easier for the child to communicate with the other children - and
the teacher in sign language. This meant that the motivation for the child to learn the spoken
language was lowered so that the deaf children virtually had to sit upon their hands when
communicating in the classroom. Both methods spread over Europe. The French method, however,
also took root in German speaking countries such as Austria, as we can assume from the print of a
list of signs by Czech, dated 1836, which was most likely used in the Austrian sign language.
In 1784 in Italy the first school for deaf people was opened by Abbè Tommaso Silvestri. He had
just travelled to France and studied the method of Abbè de l'Epèe. Silvestri, however, abandoned
the French method to continue with the oral method. In 1805 Padre Ottavio Assarotti opened the
first kindergarten for deaf children (Ricci-Bitti 1983) and invented his own method of education,
based on mimic.
In 1807 in Denmark the first school for the deaf was opened by Castberg. In the period 1810-1818,
he wrote a series of books regarding sign language teaching methods. He is credited with being the
father of the first description of several Danish signs and furthermore he described their origin. In
1872 A.C. Nyegaard, a Danish deaf teacher who was himself deaf, published the first dictionary of
sign language, containing the hand alphabet and 118 signs. In 1907 Johannes Jørgensen, the first
Danish priest for the deaf community published a larger collection of Danish signs (c. 307). In 1926
a further dictionary appeared with about 1500 descriptions of signs (Døvstummerådet 1926), in
1967 another dictionary was published containing more than 3000 signs (Danske Døves
Landsforbund 1967), and finally, in 1979 a dictionary with more than 5000 signs came out (Danske
Døves Landsforbund 1979). In Italy no dictionaries are mentioned until 1972 (Bornstein &
Hamilton 1972). However in 1991 two dictionaries were published. The first one contains the
description of the first 400 Italian signs used to communicate with the deaf (Angelini et al. 1991),
while the second one contains 1400 Italian signs (Romeo 1991). Other dictionaries have followed
in the recent years in all European countries.
Nowadays Caselli (1987) reports that since the International Congress of teachers of the deaf held
in Milano in 1880, Italy has chosen an oral method of education for deaf children. However, a new
educational method has been established in recent years. This model uses the visual-gestural
modality for teaching spoken-written language. The deaf child is exposed to a bimodal system in
11
which Italian language is introduced simultaneously through the visual-gestural and the acoustic-
vocal channels.
Today in Denmark the preferred, though not always possible, system in the school for the deaf,
will be bilingual learning, where sign language is accepted as a language on its own with special
courses in this language and where Danish language will be thought of as if it was a second
language to the child. This new model has been introduced in 1992 and will replace the model of
"Total Communication"7 from the seventies, where it was considered a right for all deaf children to
receive communication in all possible ways, but where there were no closed walls between the
different aspects of total communication e.g. sign and spoken words (personal communication
Lieth 1992)8.
Different sign languages have been born and developed. In some circumstances signs have been
elaborated into a more or less fully developed linguistic system not necessarily used by the deaf but
by special communities (circestian monks, Indian sign language). The modern study of sign
languages has grown in recent years. Important sources are Stokoe (1960), Klima & Bellugi (1979),
Wilbur (1976), and Volterra (1981, 1987) among others. This research does not consider sign
language to be a universal language. As Wilbur (1976) asserts, different sign languages have
different signs and rules.
They vary from country to country. American Sign language (ASL) is the principal means of
communication among deaf people in the United States. Italian Sign language (LIS) in Italy,
Danish Sign language (DSL) in Denmark, British Sign language (BSL) in England, French Sign
language (SFL) in France, etc. LIS has both similarities and differences with ASL and DSL.
Studies of sign languages have found that French and American Sign Language present very little
similarity, even if they have the same origin9 (Battison & Jordan 1976). This does not preclude,
however, that there may be basic patterns of communication inherent in many forms of gesturing.
In the sixties and seventies the World Federation of the Deaf developed an international sign
language, "Gestuno", whose aim is the unification of sign languages used by deaf people (Lieth et
al. 1991).
1.1.3 "Gesture" as an Italian origin: from "Pantomime" to "Commedia dell'Arte"
The name "Pantomime" is connected to the word "Nature". "Pan" was the "god of nature" amongst
the Ancients. "Mimos", after the Greek verb "mimeisthai", with the meaning "to imitate", was the
"imitator". In the combination of these two words we have "an imitator of Nature". On the Grecian
stage, those performers who devoted themselves entirely to the Art of Miming originally came
from Sicily and southern Italy (Hjortsjö 1970). Pantomime was first mentioned in Italy after the
downfall of the Roman Empire. The Emperor Augustus who displayed great favour to the Arts, has
even been credited with being the originator of Pantomime (Broadbent 1901; Duchartre 1966).
The art of pantomime was practised both by the Greeks and the Romans, induced by their habit of
addressing large assemblies in open air. Without the assistance of some conventional signs,
7
This term is explained by Schlesinger & Medadow (1972, p. 126) as the simultaneous use of oral and manual
language” (reported in Lieth 1975).
8
For an analysis of sign language theory and history see Stokoe (1960). For a discussion of teaching methods for deaf
and their development in Denmark see Holm et al. (19839, and in Italy see in Ricci-Bitti (1983) and Volterra (1981,
1987). For the international development see also Kyle (1987) and Stokoe & Volterra (1983).
9
De l’Epèe’s French method as brought to U.S.A. by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, an American minister, who learned
the method in Paris, and a French deaf teacher of the deaf, Laurent Clerc.
12
generally recognized and familiar to all classes, it would have been impossible for the majority to
comprehend what was said.
These signs were chiefly made by certain positions of the hands and fingers (Broadbent 1901).
Pantomime in this form gradually spread all over Italy and the provinces.
Pantomime, in Italy, had two distinct features, Lazzi and Extemporal or Improvised Comedies.
Gesture had great importance in the "lazzo" used by the actor. The word meaning "knots" (lazzi
being the Lombardian expression for the Tuscan lacci) was used to denote the scenes wherein the
buffoons interrupted the story with irrelevant pranks (Hallar 1977).
The term "Commedia dell'Arte" originates from the second feature. For three centuries or more
(from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century) the Commedia dell'Arte had an enormous influence
throughout Europe both in literature, music and painting.
It spread throughout France, Spain, England, Denmark, Austria, Germany and even Russia. Its
influence is found in Moliere and in Shakespeare (Miklasevskij 1981). Even if the first troupes of
Italian players performed in their native tongue, they were able to make their Parisian audiences
understand them without difficulty, by virtue of their mimic expressions. In English dramatic
literature the Italian Extemporal Comedies and their Pantomimical characters also had a
considerable influence on English drama literature. In England Commedia dell'Arte troupes had
occasionally appeared since the sixteenth century and by 1723 pantomime was there the most
popular form of theatrical entertainment (Brockett 1977). In Denmark the Italian masked theatre
was favoured by the Danish sovereigns particularly by Christian IV, Frederik III and IV. During the
reign of Frederik IV (1699-1730) the figure of Ludvig Holberg inaugurated the Danish comedy
which was influenced by the Italian Commedia dell'Arte and by Moliere. In 1800 Pasquale Casarti
started the tradition of pantomime that has survived until today in the theatre of Tivoli in
Copenhagen, in the "Pantomime teatret" (Hallar 1977, Sandfort 1981).
The Italian term "arte" does not only mean "art" but also "ability". The term "Commedia dell'Arte"
also called "Commedia professionale" denotes the professional ability of its actors and a good
Italian actor could match his words and actions perfectly (Duchartre 1966). Every actor
specialized in a particular character10 (Wickhan 1988) and the characters of the Commedia
dell'Arte each had their own manners and gesturing. The modern art of mime is also related to the
Commedia dell'arte and the basic elements of mimic are gesture, attitude and sometimes voice
(Buffelli 1829).
1.2 Materials and methodology used in previous studies
"Gestures are hard to classify and it is difficult to
make a conscious separation between that in gesture
which is merely individual origin and that which is
referable to the habits of the group as a whole..."
(Sapir 1949, p. 556).
Nevertheless many authors have provided some classification of gestures. Different points of view
and different criteria of evaluation make these classifications very assorted (Siddons 1807; De
Jorio 1832; Mallery 1881; Hacks 1892; Mahl 1968; Ekman & Friesen 1969 and 1972; Crisari
10
The principal characters were the “Capocomico” or the “Magnifico” (the master of jokes), the “l’amoroso e
l’amorosa” (the lovers), the “Capitano” (the captain), and the “Zanni” (the servants) Brighella and Harlequin.
13
1971; Abercrombie 1973; Argyle 1975; Berthier 1979; McNeill 1985, etc). With or without a
classification, emblematic gestures have been catalogued in several studies.
The following table is an outline, in chronological order, of the more salient features regarding the
sources of data, the fieldwork and recording methods employed in several inventories. The
weakness of many of these inventories is that their authors have considered different kinds of
kinesic11 categories which also include manners and postures under the label "gestures". A
differentiation between gesture, postures and manners would have made these inventories more
easily comparable. However, all these studies represent important steps in the methodology utilized
in kinesic research.
They will therefore be mentioned. We have only taken into consideration those inventories
regarding gestures and not sign language catalogues or studies of facial expressions. Important
works, regarding inventories of gestural languages which are similar to sign languages (such as
Leibnitz 1768, Mallery 1881, etc.) or other works not considered real inventories (such as Darwin
1872) or regarding only facial expression analysis will not therefore be mentioned.
Table 2. Outline of the most representative inventories of gestures
Author & Year Materials Methodology
De Jorio (1832) About 200 Neapolitan gestures. Direct observation performed by the
author.
Hirtsch (1923) 800 gestures known by German
speaking people. Only some of these
gestures are symbolic; the list covers
all body behaviors.
Direct observation performed by the
author.
Kaulfers (1931) Spanish gestures. Direct observation performed by the
author supplied by personal
communication with natives of
Spanish-speaking countries.
Krout (1935) 160 self-direct or autistic gestures
(i.e., symbolic movements performed
when an individual, inhibiting his
direct response to the external
situation, responds explicitly to
subsequent internal stimulation)
known by 120 college students
subjects.
The subjects were asked to take home
a list of words, and to go over them
visualizing another person making the
gestures associated to the words.
Then they had to perform the gestures
themselves, and set down an
interpretation.
Efron (1941) Comparative study of gestural
behavior of approximately 2810
Eastern Jews and Southern Italians of
both sexes in New York city.
Direct observation in natural
situations and in public places. At the
end of the book (ed. 1972) is a list of
151 southern Italian descriptive and
symbolic gestures.
Brewer (1951). 15 pictorial and symbolic Arabic
gestures used by the native
population of Beirut (Lebanon).
Direct observation performed by the
author.
Munari (1958).
28 Italian gestures.
Direct observation performed by the
author.
Kany (1960).
Spanish gestures known by
American-Spanish informants
Direct observation performed by the
author over a period of 25 years.
From (1962), [see
From 1973]
258 gestures known by 35
Danish students of psychology.
The emblems were collected by
asking the informants to list the
gestures they knew.
11
Gestures together with postures and manners represent the object of study of the science called kinesiks. Kinesics
was started as a science by the psychiatrist-anthropologist Ray L. Birdwhistell in the early Fifties (Birdwhistell 1970;
see also Poyatos 1972). During the last decades, the interest of researchers has been increasingly drawn to the kinesic
aspect of communication especially in relation with language. The gestural theory of language origins proposes that
gestures were the first way f communication among men (Kyle & Woll 1985).
14
Saitz & Cervenka (1962). 290 American/Spanish gestures
known by 4 Colombian informants
(two males and two females, young-
adult and middle-age) and 20 male
and female American informants
(coming from different regions of
U.S.A. and representing a wide range
of ages).
Gestures were collected on the basis
of authors' observations during the
years 1960-62 and from interviews
with Colombian and American
informants. The observed gestures
were presented to the subjects for
their recognition and comment.
Brault (1963)
French gestures. Direct observation performed by the
author.
Green (1968) 119 gestures known by Spanish
students and professors of both sexes.
Almost all are non symbolic.
Direct observation performed by the
author in daily activities.
Brun (1969) Signs used in the modern time (over
500 illustrations). All types of sign
languages are considered.
Direct observation performed by the
author.
Lynge Nielsen (1971) [see Lynge
Nielsen 1973]
100 gestures known by 100 Danish
male and female informants.
100 questionnaires containing the
pictures of 100 emblems (chosen
from From's inventory)were sent to
the informants. The subjects were
asked to answer if they knew the
gesture to have a given interpretation
and/or if they knew it to have another
meaning.
Martinussen & Lynge Nielsen (1972) 10 gestures known by 200 Danish
male and female informants (aged 6-
76 and over) selected at random in
public institutions.
10 pictures representing 10 emblems
(chosen from From's inventory) were
presented to the informants. The
subjects were asked to answer what
they thought the actor wanted to
communicate. All the answers were
written down by the interviewers.
Palmquist (1972) 25 gestures used by 50 Danish car
drivers (aged between 18 and 61).
Direct observation of gestural
behavior in daily situations. The
subjects were asked to say which kind
of gestures they used or knew in
"inter-driver" communication. All the
answers were written down by the
interviewer.
Lieth (1973) 31 gestures known by Danish
students.
The emblems were collected by a
written questionnaire send to the
informants. The subjects were asked
both to write their meaning for the
given gestures and to add other
gestures they knew.
Barakat (1973) 247 Arab emblems. Only a few items
are from Arab women..D
Direct observation performed by the
author.
2nd Nonverbal Seminar (1974) [Non-
verbal Seminar II: see Enggaard
1978)
About 100 gestures known by groups
of Danish informants (3 groups of 3
to 9 participants).
The gestures, recorded on video, were
presented to the informants. The
subjects had to fill in a questionnaire
where they were asked to write down
the meaning of the gestures.
Graham & Argyle (1975) Gestural behavior of 24 English and
24 Italian male encoders.
The subjects were asked to
communicate two-dimensional shapes
to other informants of their own
culture, with and without the use of
hand gestures.
Johnson, Ekman & Friesen (1975) 100 semantic gestures known by
middle-class male American
The method was to ask if the
informants knew the emblems
15
informants (aged between 21 and 35)
in S.Francisco.
corresponding to a given message
(approximately 220 verbal messages);
the gestures were then filmed.
Visual Communication (1975)
[Visuel Kommunikation]: see
Enggaard 1978)
25 gestures known by 42 Danish male
and female informants (aged between
19 to 35; 14 were deaf, 13 hard-of-
hearing, and 15 normal).
The gestures, recorded on video, were
presented to the informants. The
subjects had to fill in a questionnaire
here they were asked to write down
the meaning of the gestures.
Carpitella (1976, 1982) Gestural behavior of Neapolitan and
Sardinian informants (age missing).
Direct observations in natural
situations.
Ricci-Bitti (1976) Gestural behavior of 16 interviewers,
8 from Northern Italy and 8 from
Southern Italy, aged between 20 and
24.
The subjects were interviewed and
videotaped four times for three
minutes about different topics. The
judges timed the amount of
gesticulating by subjects and counted
the total number of gestures (adaptor,
illustrator, emblems and conventional
gestures) made by subjects during the
central two minutes of the interview
which had been video-recorded.
Sainsbury & Wood (1977) Gestural behavior in 36 subjects (18
French and 18 English students aged
between 17 and 78).
The subjects were interviewed 2
times for seven minutes about
different topics. The number of
gestures were recorded continuously.
Creider (1977) Gestural behavior of four Western
Kenyan tribal groups.
Direct observation in the course of
two and a half years (1970-2).
Wylie (1977) 62 emblems used by French students. Direct observation performed by the
author.
Sparhawk (1978) Persian gestures known by 15 Iranian
informants, aged between 18 and 40.
The method was to ask if the
informants knew the emblems
corresponding to a given message
(approximately 220 verbal messages);
the gestures were then filmed.
Enggaard (1978)
136 gestures considered to be the
symbolic repertoire of the Danish
speaking people.
Assembling of the symbolic gestures
considered to be the Danish repertoire
as suggested by previous Danish
research.
Andrea & De Boer (1979) 154 gestures used in Holland. Direct observation performed by the
authors.
Morris et al. (1979) Distribution of 20 hand and head
gestures over 40 locations, mostly in
Europe.
The gestures were presented to 1200
adult male informants (30 informants
interviewed in each of the 40
locations) selected at random in
public places.
The drawings of each gesture were
presented to the informants. The
informants were asked to say if the
gesture was used locally, and if so
what it meant.
Mohanan (1983) 73 gestures used in Russia. Direct observation performed by the
author.
Gaudeau (1983) 210 Italian gestures in the period
1971 to 1978.
Direct observation performed by the
author.
Safadi & Valentine (1987) 26 emblems used by 275 Hebrew
speakers.
Decoding of the gesture with special
attention to the certainty of
interpretation.
Sobrero (1989) Gestural behavior of Italian
informants (aged between 15 and
over 50).
Direct observation performed by the
author.
Calbris (1990) 34 emblems and facial expressions
used by 47 French subjects (aged
between 17 and 49).
A film showing the gestures was
shown to the subjects. The subjects
had to associate an utterance (out of a
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