Distributed embodiment of the Persian term dæqi:qæn in forward gestures

This study examined the embodied realization of the Persian term dæqi:qæn (exactly) when embodied through gestures. A group of thirty Persian native speakers were asked to express their opinions about six subjects in an interview setting. During the interview, the interviewer used some techniques to elicit the term dæqi:qæn from the participants. The types of gestures produced when participants used the term dæqi:qæn were analyzed. The results showed that the term dæqi:qæn was embodied primarily by forward hand gestures and to a lesser degree by forward head gestures. This suggests that a given term can be embodied across various parts of the body, but degree of realization of this embodiment process is not the same in all involved body parts. While some body parts are strongly involved and actively employed to embody a concept in gestures, other parts may be less involved or not involved at all. We call this process distributed embodiment. The term dæqi:qæn was strongly embodied in forward hand gestures, less strongly (but still significant) embodied in forward head gestures, and almost not embodied in the leg.