Language of Asian Gestures

Jieun Kiaer holds the YBMK KF Professorship in Korean Linguistics at the University of Oxford. As a linguist, pragmatist, and specialist in Asian studies, she has published extensively in the fields of theoretical and applied linguistics as well as translation studies. Her research goes beyond the traditionally Western and text-focused approaches to language, embracing non-European and multi-modal perspectives to offer a more nuanced understanding of human communication.Loli Kim is a postdoctoral researcher on the Leverhulme project "Sea, Song and Survival: The Language and Folklore of the Haenyeo Women" at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. As a multimodalist, semiotician, and specialist in Asian studies, semantics, and film, she publishes across fields of multimodality, semiotics, translation, semantics, pragmatics, and film and media studies—all drawn together by cross-cultural perspectives that seek to contextualise Asian discourses in their own cultures and to develop the methodological tools needed for doing so.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgements Preface Part I. Gestures – Moving Words or Words in Action? Gestures – A Bird's Eye ViewProsody as GestureUnderstanding Facial ExpressionsCultural GesturesDiversity in Asian Language and CultureAsian GesturesMultimodal Modulation Hypothesis (MMH)Hierarchy Through GestureDiversity in Asian GesturesBowing Gesturing ProperlyVerbal – Gestural Languages: Division of LabourBorder-Crossing GesturesPart II. Gesture in Asia – Mapped Though FilmHeadSmileKissOpen Mouth, Sticking Out Tongue, and Lip PointingNoddingHead to HandScratching the HeadEar Pulling and Ear HoldingRolling Both Hands Behind EarsEye GazeLowering the HeadClosing Eyes and BlinkingWinkingRaised EyebrowsVoiceWhistlingSlurpingLaughterHissingSilenceSoft SpeakingUpper bodyShouldersArmsCrossed ArmsBowingHandshakeHand Over MouthBeckoningFistWavingPointingTouching the HeartHands Held Together in LapWrist TwistingCutting ThroughPouring for SomeoneOne or Two HandsDrinking GesturesFood GesturesGiving and Receiving Items and GiftsLeft or Right HandTouchNo Touching of the HeadPatting and HittingChin Grabbing/ShakingBrushing and WashingLower bodyCrossing Legs and KneelingCovering Bare Legs When SittingFeetExposing the FeetTouching Someone Else's FeetTouching Things or Gesturing Using FeetPart III. Future Gestures in an Asian ContextThe Evolution of GesturesSmartphone GesturesGestures in a Digital AgeEmoji and Acronym Ambiguity: Interpreting Generational Disparities in Digital CommunicationDecoding Gestures: The Complexities in an Increasingly Mobile World‘Translingual, Transcultural, and Transmedial’: Individual DifferencesTransnational GesturesFandom Gestures: Transcending Borders and CulturesSharing Memes and Emojis: An Act of SolidarityGesture DiversityGesture ConflictsFuture Gestures: Less Hierarchical?Online Gestures MatterAI Gestures in FilmsFuture of Human LanguageFilmographyIntervieweesBibliographyIndex