Verbo-gestural metaphors and metonymies in narratives of a TEDx speech on Science in Brazil

Abstract

In this paper, we aim at identifying, analyzing and describing verbo-gestural metaphors and metaphorized gestures conveyed in five samples belonging to the narratives told at the TEDx USP conference “Brazilian science and Cassandra’s dream”, given by Natalia Pasternak.  In order to deal with the multimodal structuring of the narrative, we used considerations about narrative levels and the marking of points of view. Furthermore, we discuss the global communicative functions performed by facial gestures and expressions, focusing on the expressive function. Based on an adaptation to the data of the Brazilian Portuguese (PB), of the Metaphor Identification Guidelines for Gestures (MIG-G), we focus mainly on the non-referential functions performed by gestures.  In the results, it was possible to identify metaphorized gestures, with the dissemination of posture and attitudes of the speaker – in this case, the narrator, at the narrative level, and the speaker, at the paranarrative level. More broadly, the narratives illustrate, both for the scientific community and for a wider audience, the need to discuss science in everyday life.