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The Brazilian Thumbs‐Up Gesture
Author(s) -
Sherzer Joel
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1525/jlin.1991.1.2.189
Subject(s) - gesture , meaning (existential) , obligation , ethnography , situated , communication , variety (cybernetics) , linguistics , sociology , psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , anthropology , philosophy , political science , law , psychotherapist
The thumbs‐up gesture, of probable European origin, is extremely common in Brazil where it has a variety of uses. A combined social interactional and ethnographic approach is used to show that the various uses of the thumbsup gesture are systematically related. The core paradigmatic meaning of the thumbs‐up gesture is "good," "positive," or "OK," and the core syntagmatic meaning is "social obligation met." Other meanings emerge from particular contexts in which the gesture is situated.