(Salle F106)

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Haviland, John (Reed College/ CIESAS-Sureste, Mexico)

Positional roots & iconic gestures : relations between gesture and semantic typology in language

Tzotzil, like other Mayan languages, has a class of roots traditionally called “positionals,” distinguished from other word classes both by the morphological properties of its members and by a diffuse semantic coherence. “Positional” roots typically denote positions, shapes, collocations, and other aspects of the arrangement or appearance of objects. Their use is highly expressive and often affectively charged. Speakers of Zinacantec Tzotzil, in conversation and in narrative, characteristically include in their speech words derived from such roots, and often they gesture as well. I explore the relationships between characterizing gestures and spoken positional forms, focussing on semiotic relations between apparently iconic gestures and their evident “positional” affi liates. The issue is how, if at all, typological features of a language’s semantic structure and apparent expressive preoccupations in a speech community are refl ected in the corresponding gestural practice.