Gesticulation in Italian

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Hand gestures are used in regions of Italy and in the Italian language as a form of nonverbal communication and expression. The gestures within the Italian lexicon are dominated by movements of the hands and fingers, but may also include movements of facial features such as eyebrows, the mouth and the cheeks. [1] Theories persist as to the exact origin of hand gestures as a method of communication in Italy, however it is likely that they emerged through necessity as a universal, non-verbal method of communicating across different Italian local languages and dialects. [2] Despite the majority of today's Italian population speaking Italian, hand gestures have persisted as a method of expression to accompany verbal speech in many regions of Italy.

Contents

Around 251 specific hand gestures have been identified, with the belief that they developed during a period of occupation in which seven main groups are believed to have taken root in Italy: the Germanic tribes (Vandals, Ostrogoths and Lombards), the Moors, Normans, the French, Spaniards, and Austrians. Given that there was no common language, rudimentary sign language may have developed, forming the basis of modern-day hand gestures.[ citation needed ]

Historical background and development

The precise origin of hand gestures as a popular component of Italian communication is still contested. De Jorio interprets the endurance of hand gestures in Southern Italy in particular as a cultural legacy of the Romans, who used the art of chironomia in everyday communication and in oratory. [3]

The development of hand gestures is closely connected with the communicative phenomenon, [4] and this non-verbal communication system cannot be formed within a short period. The early urbanization in Italy is believed to be the seed of capitalism there, which creates more opportunities for negotiations and bargains. [5] The increasing demand of communication stimulates the wide use of hand gestures in Italy. In addition, the colonization stimulates the cultural fusion leading to the need of another language to communicate, hand gestures. According to research, Ancient Greek colonization along the Mediterranean coast including southern Italy can be traced back to the early eighth century BC. [6] After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, local language did not take a dominant position any longer, because of the arrival of new immigrants and colonizers from other regions of the world. [7] The data indicates the seven main groups: the Carolingians, the Visigoths, the Normans, Saracens, the German tribes, French and Austrians. [7] Additionally, Based on the extant funeral stone from the 5th century BC in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, two soldiers were recorded with the moment of hands shaking. [8] This is believed to be the proof of gestures in Ancient Greek which passed to and affected Italian non-verbal communication generation-to-generation even more than language. To the 21st century, around 250 hand gestures Italians use in everyday conversation have been identified. [9]

The irreplaceable role of gesture in medieval societies especially in Renaissance is being acclaimed as the ‘une civilisation du geste' by Jacques Le Goff. [10] One reason that can explain the rich history of Italian hand gestures and one of them is about the cultural transmission and emotional expression during the period of Renaissance. Renaissance emphasized the restoration of human nature in the classical era with the aim of breaking the shackles of religion. [11] At that time period, people have stronger willing to express themselves and attract the attention from other people with the aim of humanity liberation. [12] By using hand gestures, they can gain a sense of satisfaction from delivering their thoughts. Therefore, Renaissance is a vial time point for the development of Italian hand gestures.

Hand gestures were extremely conspicuous in Italy during the early modern period. [3] This may be due to the emergence of highly populated, large city states throughout Italy, such as Florence and Naples, in which people were compelled to take up greater space through their movements and expression in order to be understood. [13] The higher usage of hand gestures in individuals living in, or raised in, Italian cities is still observable in a contemporary context.

Gesture frontier

A ‘gesture frontier' exists in Italy which separates the gestures used commonly in Southern Italy from those used in Northern Italy. [3] This frontier is evident in the differing meaning of the 'chin flick' gesture. In Northern Italy, this gesture generally means 'get lost', whereas in Southern Italy it simply means 'no'. [14] According to Morris, [14] this is due to the ancient Greek colonisation of Southern Italy, as Greeks also use the 'chin flick' gesture to mean 'no'. A study conducted in central Italy proved this gesture frontier to be true; despite the mobility of the Italian population and the existence of nationwide media, the majority of the northern Roman population used the 'chin flick' with the Northern meaning, and the southern Neapolitan population used the Southern meaning. [14]

This separation is evident between Northern and Southern Europe as well as within Italy, for instance speakers of English and Dutch generally use gesticulations considerably less in their speech than Italians and Greeks. [3] The heavy use of gestures in communication has historically been considered an indication of a lack of civilisation in Southern European cultures by Northern Europeans. [3]

Role of gestures in communication

The continuation of hand gestures as a part of the Italian lexicon can be best understood as a form of cultural coding, as Italian children unconsciously imitate their parents and peers' behaviours, causing them to develop gesticulating during conversation as an involuntary habit. [15]

The use of hand gestures has always served a dual purpose in Italian culture; a substantive purpose which contributes expression to verbal communication and indicates emotion, and a pragmatic purpose which can serve as a substitute to verbal communication. [2]

In a contemporary context, hand gestures are primarily used amongst Italians as a form of expression to accompany conversation rather than a substitute for verbal communication. [16] The prevalence of hand gestures in communication in large Italian cities is thought to be due to competition, as individuals unconsciously wish to be more visible and take up more space in a busy urban setting by adding physical elements to their communication. [1]

Communication vs. information

Pointing Uncle Sam is an example of strong non-verbal communication, while this gesture is regarded to be impolite in many countries Uncle Sam (pointing finger).png
Pointing Uncle Sam is an example of strong non-verbal communication, while this gesture is regarded to be impolite in many countries

Communication

Communicative postures would be named active postures, since it is given on purpose by individuals. For example, when a speaker is enthusiastic to deliver important information to his audience, he might tries to emphasis on hand gestures rather than the speech. [17] A good example is about the picture of Uncle Sam, who is pointing his index finger directly towards you which is seen as a strong expression. [18]

Information

Informative gestures or passive postures refer to the hand movements that are not necessary or meaningful to the conversation, such as behaviors in scratching, adjusting clothing, and tapping. [17] Since this part of gesture does not focus on communication, it usually does not involve extra verbal communication.

Classification of Italian hand gestures

There are two main ways to classify the Italian hand gestures. The first way is to distinguish them via the occasions them used, such as religious rites, gladiatorial arenas and daily conversation. [19] Another way is to differentiate the communicative and informative hand gestures in the Italian language system. [20] These two types gestures might occur automatically, whereas informative-communicative dichotomy is used to explore the actual intention of them behind the conversation. [20]

Religious rites

icons of the Annunciation Ohrid annunciation icon.jpg
icons of the Annunciation

In the oldest surviving Annunciation image, icons of the Annunciation, it can be found that the Archangel Gabriel is generally raised his hand before he started to mention something important. And this kind of gesture had been amply manifested by the behaviors of Roman rhetoricians when they were about to emphasise a key point. [21] This tradition still affects the conversation of Italians beginning an exordium.

Gladiatorial arenas

Pollice Verso (1872), which popularized the "thumbs down" gesture. Oil on canvas, Phoenix Art Museum Jean-Leon Gerome Pollice Verso.jpg
Pollice Verso (1872), which popularized the "thumbs down" gesture. Oil on canvas, Phoenix Art Museum

More recent research suggests that the use of thumb up and thumb down originates from Rome in the gladiatorial arenas, to decide the destiny of the loser in that fight. [22] The loser may beg for mercy to the crowd, who would decide his fate by showing thumbs up or down. If he received more thumbs-up gestures than the thumbs-down, then the gladiator was to be spared. Thumbs down, on the other hand, signified execution. [23] However, there is still a controversy amongst scholars about the exact meaning of thumb-up and thumb-down in ancient Rome.

Daily routine

The habit of talking with one's hands in Italy has been reported to address and reinforce the meaning of expressions. An iconic symbol of Italian gesture is the movement of the hand with an up-down activity. Under normal conversation, gesturing helps in delivering the meaning and receiving information. For example, when an Italian is begging for help, he would put his palms together with fingers extended and press. Due to the difference in local context and cultural background, Italian has its own hand gesture system which might not always have the same use in different regions, even for northern and southern regions.

Basic gestures

Michael Pena performing the "Che vuoi?" gesture at Lucca Comics & Games (2018) Diego Luna and Michael Pena - Lucca Comics & Games 2018 04.jpg
Michael Peña performing the "Che vuoi?" gesture at Lucca Comics & Games (2018)

The following section introduces some common and useful gestures used regularly in Italian conversation with words described. [24]

Benefits

The elaboration of hand and daily communication shows some advantages and the use of gestures help the Italian's expression more easy-understanding which is believed by psychologists. [27] There are some reasons to explain that.

Hand gesture act as a proxy to turn intangible thoughts into hand movements presenting the idea in a direct way. Recently, more researches have improved that there is a link between the cognition and action. [28] For instance, Broca's area a brain region functions an important role in speaking. In addition, this area is active at the same time when there is a hand movement. [29]

Effective communication, notably teaching, is a central application of cognitive psychology. Explaining processes that occur over time is especially challenging, primarily because of the complexity of the sequence of actions and their causes and consequences. Adding gestures that are crafted to congruently represent the actions to the verbal explanation deepens understanding of the actions and the system as a whole. Gestures are especially effective because they can both resemble and represent and also embody action. [30] As a consequence, gesturing is also regarded as a "second language". Italians use the hand movements in conjunction with their own language to convey the information, hence oral communication is supplemented by the gestures. [31]

There is a conducted experiment based on the effects about hand gestures to children, it is found that hand gestures used at 14 months was an important indicator of the size of vocabulary at 42 months, significantly outweigh the vocabulary size of normal children who only affected by the parents and child words at 14 months. [32] Not only for language system, early gesturing immersive environment has a potential effect on individual's personality. Until now there is not a supportable evidence to explain the relationship between gesturing habit and biological genes. Whereas, it is found that people who prefer to use gesturing during their conversation tend to be defined with warm, agreeable and energetic characteristic, while less animated speakers are relatively logical, cold and analytical. [33]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baby sign language</span> Signed language systems used with hearing infants/toddlers

Baby sign language is the use of manual signing allowing infants and toddlers to communicate emotions, desires, and objects prior to spoken language development. With guidance and encouragement, signing develops from a natural stage in infant development known as gesture. These gestures are taught in conjunction with speech to hearing children, and are not the same as a sign language. Some common benefits that have been found through the use of baby sign programs include an increased parent-child bond and communication, decreased frustration, and improved self-esteem for both the parent and child. Researchers have found that baby sign neither benefits nor harms the language development of infants. Promotional products and ease of information access have increased the attention that baby sign receives, making it pertinent that caregivers become educated before making the decision to use baby sign.

Symbolic communication is the exchange of messages that change a priori expectation of events. Examples of this are modern communication technology and the exchange of information amongst animals. By referring to objects and ideas not present at the time of communication, a world of possibility is opened. In humans, this process has been compounded to result in the current state of modernity. A symbol is anything one says or does to describe something, and that something can have an array of many meanings. Once the symbols are learned by a particular group, that symbol stays intact with the object. Symbolic communication includes gestures, body language and facial expressions, as well as vocal moans that can indicate what an individual wants without having to speak. Research argues that about 55% of all communication stems from nonverbal language. Symbolic communication ranges from sign language to braille to tactile communication skills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emblem</span> Pictorial image that epitomizes a concept or that represents a person

An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a monarch or saint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Body language</span> Type of nonverbal communication

Body language is a type of communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. The term body language is usually applied in regard to people but may also be applied to animals. The study of body language is also known as kinesics. Although body language is an important part of communication, most of it happens without conscious awareness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gesture</span> Form of non-verbal/non-vocal communication

A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific messages, such as purely expressive displays, proxemics, or displays of joint attention. Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to words when they speak. Gesticulation and speech work independently of each other, but join to provide emphasis and meaning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonverbal communication</span> Interpersonal communication through wordless (mostly visual) cues

Nonverbal communication (NVC) is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (haptics), voice (paralanguage), physical environments/appearance, and use of objects. When communicating, we utilize nonverbal channels as means to convey different messages or signals, whereas others can interpret these message. The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions. For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance questioned. Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

Home sign is a gestural communication system, often invented spontaneously by a deaf child who lacks accessible linguistic input. Home sign systems often arise in families where a deaf child is raised by hearing parents and is isolated from the Deaf community. Because the deaf child does not receive signed or spoken language input, these children are referred to as linguistically isolated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese number gestures</span> Hand gestures for numbers 1-10 used by Chinese speakers

Chinese number gestures are a method to signify the natural numbers one through ten using one hand. This method may have been developed to bridge the many varieties of Chinese—for example, the numbers 4 and 10 are hard to distinguish in some dialects. Some suggest that it was also used by business people during bargaining when they wish for more privacy in a public place. These gestures are fully integrated into Chinese Sign Language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OK gesture</span> Hand gesture

The OK gesture or OK sign or ring gesture is performed by joining the thumb and index finger in a circle, and holding the other fingers straight or relaxed away from the palm. Commonly used by scuba divers, it signifies "I am OK" or "Are you OK?" when underwater. In most English-speaking countries it denotes approval, agreement, and that all is well or "okay". In other contexts or cultures, similar gestures may have different meanings including those that are negative, offensive, financial, numerical, devotional, political, or purely linguistic.

American Sign Language (ASL), the sign language used by the deaf community throughout most of North America, has a rich vocabulary of terms, which include profanity. Within deaf culture, there is a distinction drawn between signs used to curse versus signs that are used to describe sexual acts. In usage, signs to describe detailed sexual behavior are highly taboo due to their graphic nature. As for the signs themselves, some signs do overlap, but they may also vary according to usage. For example, the sign for "shit" when used to curse is different from the sign for "shit" when used to describe the bodily function or the fecal matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finger-counting</span> Multi-cultural system of counting directly involving the digits

Finger-counting, also known as dactylonomy, is the act of counting using one's fingers. There are multiple different systems used across time and between cultures, though many of these have seen a decline in use because of the spread of Arabic numerals.

The grammar of American Sign Language (ASL) has rules just like any other sign language or spoken language. ASL grammar studies date back to William Stokoe in the 1960s. This sign language consists of parameters that determine many other grammar rules. Typical word structure in ASL conforms to the SVO/OSV and topic-comment form, supplemented by a noun-adjective order and time-sequenced ordering of clauses. ASL has large CP and DP syntax systems, and also doesn't contain many conjunctions like some other languages do.

Gestures in language acquisition are a form of non-verbal communication involving movements of the hands, arms, and/or other parts of the body. Children can use gesture to communicate before they have the ability to use spoken words and phrases. In this way gestures can prepare children to learn a spoken language, creating a bridge from pre-verbal communication to speech. The onset of gesture has also been shown to predict and facilitate children's spoken language acquisition. Once children begin to use spoken words their gestures can be used in conjunction with these words to form phrases and eventually to express thoughts and complement vocalized ideas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Goldin-Meadow</span> American psychologist

Susan Goldin-Meadow is the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Psychology, Comparative Human Development, the college, and the Committee on Education at the University of Chicago. She is the principal investigator of a 10-year program project grant, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, designed to explore the impact of environmental and biological variation on language growth. She is also a co-PI of the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC), one of six Science of Learning Centers funded by the National Science Foundation to explore learning in an interdisciplinary framework with an eye toward theory and application. She is the founding editor of Language Learning and Development, the official journal of the Society for Language Development. She was President of the International Society for Gesture Studies from 2007–2012.

Non-verbal leakage is a form of non-verbal behavior that occurs when a person verbalizes one thing, but their body language indicates another, common forms of which include facial movements and hand-to-face gestures. The term "non-verbal leakage" got its origin in literature in 1968, leading to many subsequent studies on the topic throughout the 1970s, with related studies continuing today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fig sign</span> Offensive hand gesture

The fig sign is a mildly obscene gesture that uses a thumb wedged in between two fingers. The gesture is most commonly used to ward off the evil eye, insult someone, or deny a request. It has been used at least since the Roman Age in Southern Europe and parts of the Mediterranean region, including in Turkish culture. Some countries in Asia, Slavic cultures and South Africa use it too. It is used playfully in Northwestern Europe and North Africa, countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, Libya, Tunisia and Czech Republic to pretend to take the nose off a child.

An obscene gesture is a movement or position of the body, especially of the hands or arms, that is considered exceedingly offensive or vulgar in some particular cultures. Such gestures are often sexually suggestive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pointing</span> Gesture

Pointing is a gesture specifying a direction from a person's body, usually indicating a location, person, event, thing or idea. It typically is formed by extending the arm, hand, and index finger, although it may be functionally similar to other hand gestures. Types of pointing may be subdivided according to the intention of the person, as well as by the linguistic function it serves.

Jana Marie Iverson is a developmental psychologist known for her research on the development of gestures and motor skills in relation to communicative development. She has worked with various populations including children at high risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), blind individuals, and preterm infants. She is currently a professor of psychology at Boston University.

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