Subjective and Non Subjective Gestures in the Bulgarian Nonverbal System

Abstract

In the Bulgarian nonverbal system, from the perspective of the relationship between the components subject and action, two types of gestures are distinguished: subjective gestures, in which the subject is the source and performer of the action, and non-subjective gestures, in which the subject is absent and the gesture has an external source acting upon the human body or its parts, thereby turning them into performers of the gesture. At the linguistic level, subjective and non-subjective units are represented by structures that differ in their grammatical composition: the former consist of a subject-person and personal forms of the predicate-verb, while in the latter the subject is non-person, and the predicate-verb appears in a third-person form. The presence of non-subjective units, besides being a specific feature of the Bulgarian nonverbal system, also characterizes it as an open system that interacts with the external environment.