ABSTRACT This dissertation will explore the interrelationship between intonation and gesture, thus widening the scope of recent studies of cognitive functioning. Although scholars have long suspected a strong link, and believe gestures and speech to be part of the same psychological structure, scientific convention has fostered an artificial separation of these concurrent aspects of communication. Current gestural-linguistic models neglect phonology in favor of the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic parallels of body movement. This project proposes a new gestural-intonational paradigm which will be applied to a data base of two dyadic conversations, each of an hour's length, filmed on videotape. Using specially modified audiovisual equipment, gestures will be microanalyzed frame-by-frame, recorded using David McNeill's gesture coding system, and then integrated with intonational patterns transcribed using an interlinear tonetic system. Data have been found which defy description using current models, but which can easily be handled by considering intonation patterns. Current gestural-linguistic models must, therefore, consider the findings of this study if they aim to completely represent the gestural-verbal complex. Intonation may prove to be more closely related to gesture than it is to syntax.
