The source text was poorly written. Strictly speaking it did not say what the author actually intended, although realistically it was one of those "Meh, you know what I mean anyway" situations. So my co-worker and I were verbally hashing it out, lobbing it back and forth, waving our hands around, trying to clearly articulate the meaning that was intended but not said.
We were stuck on one particular concept that was entirely non-tangible. It was a purely abstract idea. There is no physical element to it. It did not involve shape or size or motion, not even symbolically or metaphorically.
But when we were trying to articulate this concept, we both waved our hands around in gestures that involved shape, size, and motion. And we both, independently and simultaneously, landed on exactly exactly the same hand gestures, with exactly the same shape, size, and motion. The gestures did nothing to actually clarify the concept. If we'd been trying to explain it to an onlooker who couldn't read the source text, they would have no more information with the gestures than without. And yet we landed on exactly the same gestures.
Someone needs to study this. Get people to explain intangible concepts that cannot be communicated more effectively with gesturs than without, and videotape them doing so, then see if there's any consistency in the hand gestures used.
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