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A number of studies from the last decades have demonstrated that the iconic
gestures are shaped not only by our mental imagery but also, quite strong-
ly, by structural properties of the accompanying speech. These findings are
problematic for the central assumption in the Sketch Model (De Ruiter, 2000)
about the function of representational gesture. I suggest a seemingly small but
fundamental modification to the processing assumptions in the Sketch Model
that not only accommodates the discussed empirical findings, but also explains
many other well-known gesture phenomena. The new model also generates
new and testable predictions regarding the relationship between gesture and
speech.