ISSN: 1139-8736
Depósito Legal: B-48039-2000 |
3.4.1. Paths in English and Spanish
As expected, path content in gesture is usually expressed
in Spanish in synchrony with the path verb, while in English it is in synchrony
with the path satellites. The following two examples are from English:
(3.61) and Tweety Bird runs and gets a bowling b[all
and drops it down the drainpipe]
(3.
62) 1. [but it
rollshim
out ]
2. [down]
3. [the rainspout]
4. [out into the sidewalk]
5. [into a bowling] alley
The second example shows a complex path. In it, the
gestures are co-expressive with the path segments they accompany, and each
gesture conveys a different segment of a complex trajectory that Sylvester
followed with a bowling ball inside him.
Spanish speakers, on the other hand, do not break complex
paths into parts. Instead, they use a complex gesture that unfolds without
breaks:
(3.63) y [sale volando]
and [exits flying]
‘and flies out’.
hand moves back, down, arcs left and curves upward and forward, all
in one
continuous movement.
The speaker traces the curvilinear route that Tweety
traversed while escaping from his cage. There is a contrast between the
multiple gestures of the English example and the single Spanish gesture.
Once more, it seems as if even in the gestures that accompany speech Spanish
speakers pay less attention to the dynamic structuring of the directed
motion.
Anterior
I Siguiente
I Índice
capítulo 3 I
Índice
General
ISSN: 1139-8736
Depósito Legal: B-48039-2000 |