Maksymenko O. Instantiation of gesture-verbal utterances in the American entertaining television interview

This thesis focuses on the identification of communicative meanings of gesture-verbal utterances instantiated in American entertaining television interview. The study suggests that a communicative subject’s gesture-verbal utterance, coming into the focus of attention of another subject, triggers an intersubjective act of communication. In the context of the intersubjective act both gesture and speech as interrelated perceptual stimuli refer to one and the same referential situation and activate conscious / unconscious, shared / different sensory-motor, affective, cognitive and volitional structures of the subjects’ experience which associate with the referential situation and determine the communicative meanings of the gesture-verbal utterance. A gesture-verbal utterance is a bimodal communicative act of a subject of communication, where gesture (imagistic) and verbal modes interact as an integrated system of generating meaning. According to the sphere of consciousness / specificity of mental processes they are oriented at, gesture-verbal utterances are divided into rational, emotional and suggestive ones. Based on the nature of the gesture image (specific / detailed or abstract / schematic) there are literal and metaphorical gesture-verbal utterances. Gesture mode interacts with verbal mode in realisation of narrative (informing / evaluating / expressing an emotional attitude) and metanarrative (arranging speech) intentions of the subjects of communication. Keywords: American entertaining television interview; gesture-verbal utterance: literal / metaphorical, rational / emotional / suggestive; image; intention; mode; proposition.