[bryanrasmussen]

often when I discuss very abstract complicated subjects I use hand gestures to "place" the interlocking concepts under discussion at different positions in front of me while talking, and as I talk I will then refer to these "virtual objects" via gestures as a way of referring back to the previous point where they were brought in and "positioned" in the discussion.

[DonHopkins]

That's a thing in sign languages like ASL. You can establish a person, object, idea, timeline, etc. at a location in signing space, then refer back to it later by pointing. Sort of like spatial pronouns.

Hearing people do a looser version too. I constantly find myself putting abstract ideas "over here" and "over there", then gesturing back at those virtual objects later in the conversation.

Basically: pointing as pronouns.

Put-That-There (1980) was based on exactly this idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIn8p4_4CQ

>Put-That-There was a gestural interface created in the Architecture Machine Group in 1980.

[vanderZwan]

Yeah, one of the cool things about sign languages that most people don't realize is that it's spatial, and that allows it to be more "parallel" compared to vocal languages because its "information channels" (e.g. two hands, facial expressions and "whole body language") can be placed side by side inside that space.

Of course spoken language also has multiple channels (e.g. tone and sound) but they still lack the spatial aspect.

Apparently, people who pick up sign language later in life commonly typically make what is known as a "split verb error", where they structure their signs sequentially like vocal languages when they should do those things simultaneously.