Essay •

It is often the case that new technologies revolutionize areas of intellectual endeavor. They can lead to new analytic rigor, challenge old habits of thought, and raise new theoretical questions. Historically, the most significant technological invention for the study of language was probably alphabetic transcription systems. However, the invention of portable sound-recorders also facilitated important new directions in language analysis because it enabled investigators to record and transcribe elicited utterances more accurately, as well as 'naturally occurring' speech in social contexts. In a similar manner, the availability of inexpensive and portable film, and more recently video, has stimulated renewed interest in visual aspects of language-in-use, especially those movements of the arms and hands somewhat loosely referred to as "gestures" -that accompany speech in discursive practices.