Many methodological uncertainties, oversimplifications and distortions are apparent in the study of nonverbal aspects of communication. They will be pointed out and verified in this lecture. I will also define the boundaries between the competences of social psychology and linguistics, specifically between cognitive semanticists and language pragmaticists. I will show, using audiovisual material, that meaningful gestures contribute to the meaning of spoken expression on all levels of its organisation, that is - in accordance with Hallidays assumptions - meaningful gestures inherently create the idea expression plane together with verbal organisation (gestures represent the visualisation schemes of notions), the textual plane (gestures influence the syntactical structure of utterances) and finally the interpersonal plane (gestures serve as signs of the attitudes towards the content and behaviour of the dialogue partner). For all these reasons - in accordance with McNeill‟s assumptions - one has to define gestures as linguistic signs integrated with speech. And finally, I will make an attempt to show that cognitive hypotheses about the „embodied mind” can be brilliantly verified by the study of the nature and function of gesture in communication.