French Face-to-Face Interaction: Repetition as a Multimodal Resource - Coverbal Synchrony in Human-Machine Interaction - page 156

4 A: enfin bon c'est un mois en faisant que le week-end si tu
veux /ah ouais/ mais well a month but I was only working on
week-ends you know /oh yeah/

5 A: tu vois là tout à la ra[clette] you see, all of it with a scraper

{Gesture 1 ——————————————————————}

6 B: [c'était peint sur la ta]pisserie [truc comme ça] it was painted

on the paper and stuff

{Gesture 2 ——————————————————————}

7 A: [et ouais] yes it was

Figure 3a illustrates the gesture made by speaker A while saying all
of it with a scraper . He produces an iconic gesture as if he was holding
a scraper, a gesture in which his right hand goes up and down twice.
Speaker B repeats the iconic gesture adopting a mirror perspective in
a double up and down movement of his right hand with the same
hand shape, although the gesture is not as high in the gesture space
as Gesture 1 and a bit more towards his side instead of being in front
of his chest. Whereas Gesture 1 lasts 1.60 s, Gesture 2 in Figure 3b is
slightly shorter with a duration of 1.52 s, yet the difference in length
between the two gestures is not dramatic. What is interesting though
is their temporal alignment. Speaker B prepares for the gesture just

Figure 3a. Iconic gesture produced by speaker A (Gesture 1) in example 1.

Figure 3b. Iconic gesture reproduced by speaker B (Gesture 2) in example 1.