Nonverbal Constituents of Argumentative Discourse: Gesture and Prosody Interaction

Abstract

The present paper explores the correlation between prosodic characteristics (pitch accents) and manual gestures in argumentative court speech. The analysis of tone configuration regarding its accompanying gestures and their types in defense and prosecution opening statements revealed specific nonverbal characteristics of speech aimed at convincing the jury and contributing to the general impression of definite, categorical, confident and highly convincing utterance. The research results proved the prevailing use of falling intonation contours in both defense and prosecution with non-final level tones being typical of the former as well as the dominant usage of recurrent gestures combined with falling configurations across all the speakers.