Symbolic gestures Gesture 2:1 (2002), 71–98. issn 1568–1475 / e-issn 1569–9773© John Benjamins Publishing Company The case of the Italian gestionary Isabella Poggi Università Roma Tre The paper describes some aspects of symbolic gestures, by providing exam- ples from the Italian symbolic gestures, the autonomous culturally codified gestures used by Italian hearing people in everyday communication. It shows how the signal, the meaning and the norms of use of each gesture can be analyzed. The semantic aspects of symbolic gestures (context of use, syn- onyms, verbal formulation, meaning, grammatical and pragmatic classifica- tion) are illustrated in detail, a semantic typology of Italian symbolic gestures is presented, and it is shown how rhetorical figures are at work in their meanings as a source for synchronic polysemy and diachronic evolution. The paper finally presents the structure of the Italian gestionary, a dictionary in progress of Italian symbolic gestures. Keywords: gestural lexicon, Italian gestures of hearing people, rhetorical figures Symbolic Gestures In this work I discuss some aspects of symbolic gestures, the gestures that have been variously called “emblems” or “emblematic gestures” (Efron, 1972; Ekman & Friesen, 1969), or “quotable” gestures (Kendon, 1990); I deal with some problems implied in the construction of a gestionary, a dictionary of symbolic gestures, by providing examples from the Italian gestionary that is being compiled at the University Roma Tre (Poggi et al., in prep.). 1 What are gestures I define gesture as any movement performed by hands, arms, and/or shoulders. Gestures are used, first, to do things (to grasp an apple, to build a table); besides