Gestural expressions in use for unveiling dynamic experience attributed to verbs

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on justifying the presented experimental design that aims at examining the enactive linkages between a verb’s content and a sensorimotor experience of movement. The experiment utilised spontaneous production of hand and vocal gestures for expressing the energetic feel attributed to a word. Preliminary qualitative analysis of the expressions shows degrees of similarity in terms of experiential movement qualities. These results imply that conceiving a verb’s meaning is not necessarily far removed from bodily action.