ABSTRACT
The AB model of the syntagma (Chapter 4) predicts that gestures should be correlated with syntagmata in time and form. Syntagmata are said to arise when the motor control hierarchies of speech articulation (B) and sensory-motor representations (A) fuse. The A hierarchy is thought to derive ultimately from coordinations of actions directed toward objects and persons in the world (Piaget, 1954). Even though sensory-motor schemata are interiorized, the motoric hierarchies of A are still intact; they are in fact involved in the integration of nonspeech motor actions (Bernstein, 1967). Thus it is possible, during the organization of utterances on the basis of AB, that movements based on A can also occur. These movements form a type of gesture. Such gestures are actions without objects. Such gestures should be correlated with syntagmata in time because they depend on the same action schemata as speech output does, and they should agree with syntagmata in form because they are produced from the same A schemata. (What is meant by the term “form” will become clear from the examples to follow.)
