Putting up your hand vs. face needs?

[coldairballoon]

Hi all,

Having a bit of trouble w/ figuring this out; basically in Big Salmon (LingoFile):

G: Anybody been (.) fishing (.) getting anything?
B: (Holds up his hand to indicate that he did)

I get that the gesture is used to nonverbally answer the question so that the answer can be inferred from it. What I'm struggling with is further developing the 'why' component. Would it be right to say that (a) it builds in-group membership as it shows shared knowledge, and/or (b) that it's used as a face-saving strategy to protect the negative face needs of the other participants by appearing more humble/modest and less intrusive? Both seem like a pretty extreme stretch to me but there's no other way I can think of that explains why he put his hand up.

Any help is appreciated

[Bri MT]

Hey,

I haven't read the context but based on the provided information I would interpret G putting his hand up as a paralinguistic feature which provides the requested information while also addressing G's negative face needs (as it allows G to choose whether or not to continue holding the floor). This is very suggestive of a dynamic in which G is clearly the dominant speaker.

I only did a year of eng lang but I hope this helps regardless