Everyone gestures while speaking, in a specific and generally unconscious manner. What are the functions of gestures? What relationship do they have to speech? How do gestures work to create meaning? In this valuable book, Geneviève Calbris undertakes to answer those questions. Based on the author's own extensive experimental research, The Semiotics of French Gestures presents a systematic description and a detailed semiotic analysis of French gestures. The book aims to establish a structual semantics of the set of gestures and facial expressions that accompany or replace spoken language. As this book demonstrates, the study of gesturing is indispensable to a full understanding of a foreign language and its use in real-life situations. The Semiotics of French Gestures will be a valuable source for scholars and students of communication, semiotics, linguistics, and languages.