zeigtweist

Zeigtweist is a term used in gesture studies and multimodal linguistics to designate a specific type of deictic gesture that simultaneously shows and points to a referent. The word is a German compound neologism formed from zeigen (to show) and weisen (to indicate).

Definition and function: A zeigtweist gesture combines a demonstrative pointing movement with a visually augmented display of the referent, such as bringing an object into view or shaping the hand to encode attributes like color, size, or orientation. It is typically realized within co-speech gesture and complements accompanying speech rather than replacing it. The core function is to reduce ambiguity by jointly signaling the referent and conveying salient properties.

Contexts and variation: Zeigtweist gestures are commonly observed in spontaneous face-to-face interaction across languages, and are noted in both adult and child discourse. Researchers describe variants such as proximal zeigtweist (referent within near reach) and distal zeigtweist (referent at some distance). The gesture may involve one or both hands and can be performed with or without an object as part of the display.

Research relevance and applications: The concept supports analyses of multimodal communication by clarifying how gesture and speech coordinate to establish deictic reference. It is relevant in corpus annotation schemes, language development studies, and human-robot interaction research, where systems must interpret simultaneous showing and pointing. In sign-language research, shows how spatial referencing can combine gestural and manual resources.

See also: deixis, co-speech gesture, multimodal communication.