Afro-Surinamese Perspectives on Gestural Impoliteness: Gendered and Cultural Perceptions of Kiss-Teeth and Cut-Eye
Tatjana Schnellinger
Abstract: This paper considers the two emblematic gestures kiss-teeth and cut-eye by examining gesture interpretation and perception across Afro-Surinamese communities in Suriname. While the emblems can serve various pragmatic functions, the study focuses on their usages in conflictive interactional discourse and perceptions of impoliteness. Furthermore, the article investigates participants’ gendered gesture perceptions showing that the resources can be culturally associated with one gender over another. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Paramaribo, Suriname (2022), the paper explores interview data from a postcolonial pragmatics perspective (Anchimbe & Janney 2011), adding to postcolonial linguistics by extending established theoretical frameworks with postcolonial notions of impoliteness. The contribution of this study is twofold. First, two tropes emerged from participants’ quasi-translations of the gestures that reflect mild and harsh face-aggravating functions, illuminating differences in perceived impoliteness. Second, the findings show variations in gendered gesture perceptions with certain gesture usages being stereotypically linked to female interactional practices.
Keywords: emblematic gestures, kiss-teeth, cut-eye, multimodality, postcolonial pragmatics, impoliteness, face-threatening act, Suriname