The talk will consider how the study of speakers' gestures can contribute to semantic analysis of spoken language, taking the position in cognitive linguistics that semantics is based in conceptual structures and processes. We will see what spontaneous use of gesture might reveal, as well as what it cannot, about phenomena such as mental simulation, the use of spatial imagery, and objectification of abstract concepts (through metonymy and metaphor). Consideration will be given to differences between production of communicative behaviors by speakers and comprehension by those hearing and seeing them (that is: whose conceptual structures and processes we are making claims about). In addition, since both spoken language and gesture are dynamic phenomena, we will consider the implications this dynamicity has for semantic analysis. Finally, semantics and pragmatics are viewed as points on a continuum in cognitive linguistics, and we will see how this plays out in terms of the different functions of gesture.