Gesture and Silence as indicators of planning in speech

A characteristic of human talk is that it is typically accompanied by bodily movements, most noticeably of the arms and hands. It is a matter of common observation that a subclass of these hand and arm movements appear intimately linked with the process of speech production: they are rhythmically timed with the speech, and often seem to reflect the meaning which the speech expresses. We call these movements Speech Focussed Movements (SFMs). These can be distinguished from other movements which accompany speech, scratches, twitches and the like, since the latter are not timed with speech, and do not in any apparent way reflect the meaning of what is said.