Placing the hand on the heart
Brief Description
You bend your right arm at the elbow and place your palm on your chest in the area of the heart.

What does it mean?
1. It symbolises sincerity, honesty, and truthfulness of what is said. The person essentially confirms: "I speak from the heart."
2. It can express: sympathy, gratitude, excitement, or a tender attitude toward the topic of conversation. For example, this may be a reaction to touching news or words of appreciation.
3. It emphasises an informal "oath" of something: loyalty, devotion, sincerity of feelings or intentions.
4. It conveys purity of thought and good intentions: the person shows that they are acting without ill intent, with an open heart.
The gesture is often accompanied by a soft tone of voice, direct eye contact, and a calm, open posture — all of which reinforce the impression of genuine emotion. This gesture appears both in informal communication (when expressing personal feelings, requests, thanks) and in formal situations. In the public sphere, it is used during ceremonial speeches, oaths, promises, and memorial addresses — there it emphasises the weight of what is said and the speaker's personal involvement. In everyday life, the gesture more often accompanies warm words, confessions, requests for forgiveness, or assurances of friendship and loyalty.
The phases of the gesture and its execution
  • Preparation- The arm bends at the elbow. The forearm moves upward along the vertical axis. The hand is in an open hand configuration and is oriented toward the torso.
  • Pre-stroke- The arm is bent at the elbow. The forearm is raised upward. The hand is in an open hand configuration.
  • Stroke- The arm is bent at the elbow. The forearm is raised upward. The hand, in an open hand configuration, moves toward the torso and lowers onto the chest in the area of the heart.
  • Post-stroke- The arm is bent at the elbow. The forearm is raised upward. The hand, in an open hand configuration, rests on the chest in the area of the heart.
  • Retraction- The forearm moves downward. The arm straightens at the elbow and returns to the initial position along the torso.
Sources:
  1. Grishina, E. A. (2017). Russian Gesture from a Linguistic Perspective: Corpus Studies. Languages of Slavic Culture.
  2. Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge University Press
hand on heart, swear, promise, honest, sincere, loyalty, patriotism, anthem, love, devoted, truth, oath, emotional.
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