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.
 
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ISSN: 1139-8736
Depósito Legal: B-48039-2000