Gestural phraseology : the relations between the meaning of a gesture and the meaning of an idiom

The aim of the article is to discuss the relationship between the meaning of a gesture and the meaning of an idiom which is a literal description of this gesture, i. e. the so-called gestural phraseme (e. g. machnąć na coś ręką [literally: wave your hand at something; metaphorically: give up something], zacierać ręce [rub your hands], rozkładać ręce [throw up one’s hands]). Selected examples of gestures and their phraseological equivalents were discussed, also taking into account their meanings created in direct dialogue. This is particularly important because the meaning of many gestures, which are part of human communicative activity, depends on the context, which, in this case, is the speaker’s entire utterance. Moreover, analyzing gestures and idioms in the dialogue allows us to trace possible ways of co-occurring of these two semiotic modes, which, in turn, sheds some light on the functions of nonverbal behaviour in creating the meaning of utterances. Thus, the research material will contain recordings of TV programs which show politicians’ speeches and utterances of other famous people, thanks to which it is possible to watch spontaneous gesticulation accompanying speech. Conclusions from qualitative research tend to distinguish three types of relationships between a gesture and its idiomatic description: a gesture with a phraseological description accompanies an utterance which it can complement semantically; the gesture precedes the statement, announcing its content; the gesture occurs simultaneously with the idiom that describes it.