Editorial: Movement, embodiment, Kinesemiotics: interdisciplinary approaches to movement-based communication

This Research Topic was created with the idea of offering an interdisciplinary platform for scholars and readers who are interested in movement-based communication and whose work is usually located within traditionally “distant” research fields. Movement-based communication studies are an emerging area of interest within the wider field of Multimodality, an area that offers a real opportunity for exploring new theories and methodologies. The articles in this Research Topic cover a variety of contexts and practices: the common goal is the investigation of the movement-based communication as a multimodal performance with different functions that can be approached by a variety of perspectives contributing to the theoretical and methodological development of this fascinating research area. Specific schools of thought grounded in linguistics and social semiotics have provided groundbreaking analytical tools to Multimodality and have allowed for this research area to develop in multiple ways. However, this disciplinary appropriation did not facilitate much contact with theoretical developments and analytical frameworks generated by a much more diversified ensemble of approaches: this Research Topic wishes to reinforce precisely this type of contact, and it highlights four specific areas of research interest where different disciplines converge.