Based on an analysis accounting for the whole body as a possible articulator in the depiction of actions, this chapter argues for an expansion of the notion of ‘character viewpoint gestures’ to a notion of ‘multimodal action depiction from a character viewpoint’. Our study shows that speakers may deploy only single articulators, providing a semantically reduced depiction of the action, or they may deploy more bodily articulators and give a semantically rich picture of the event narrated. Our findings suggest a continuum of semiotic complexity, capturing the range of bodily involvement from less pantomimic (single articulators involved) to pantomimic depictions (more articulators involved) of actions. The paper closes by discussing our observations with respect to the notion of ‘constructed action’ and ‘role shift’ in sign languages and by giving some general remarks on the multimodal analysis of narrations.
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