Gesture and the nature of language / David F. Armstrong, William F. Stokoe, Sherman E. Wilcox.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Armstrong, David F.

Contributor:

• Stokoe, William C.
• Wilcox, Sherman.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Gesture.
• Sign language.
• Biolinguistics.
• Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.
• Language and languages--Origin.

Physical Description:

ix, 260 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, [England] ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Summary:

This book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the evolution of language, and in particular the origins of syntax. The authors argue that manual and vocal communication developed in parallel, and that the basic elements of syntax are intrinsic to gesture. They draw on evidence from areas such as primatology, anthropology, and linguistics to present a groundbreaking account of the notion that language emerged through visible bodily action, and go on to examine the implications for linguistic theory and theories of the biological evolution of language.

Contents:

• Introduction: language from the body 1
• 1 The universe of gesture 5
• 1.1 Signed and spoken languages 5
• 1.2 Speech as gesture 8
• 1.3 Signing as gesture 11
• 1.4 Semantic phonology 12
• 1.5 Language as gesture 16
• 1.6 An evolutionary perspective on language 17
• 1.7 Grasping syntax 21
• 2 The nature of gesture 27
• 2.1 Comparing sign and speech 28
• 2.2 What is gesture? 38
• 2.3 Speech as gesture 42
• 2.4 The two faces of gesture 46
• 2.5 Perceptual categorization 48
• 2.6 The role of motor actions in perception 50
• 2.7 Global mappings, preconcepts, and presyntax 53
• 2.8 Event cognition and language 54
• 2.9 Visible gestures: seeing language 57
• 3 Are signed and spoken languages differently organized? 64
• 3.1 Language from a different part of the body 64
• 3.2 Describing signed language 69
• 3.3 Seeking organizational similarity at the sublexical level 71
• 3.4 Looking at differences 80
• 4 Is language modular? 92
• 4.1 Modular versus associationist theories of language 92
• 4.2 Modularity and cerebral localization 94
• 4.3 Plasticity and associationism 95
• 4.4 Linguistic modality and modularity 97
• 4.5 "Spatial" syntax and the left brain 100
• 4.6 Simultaneity and sequentiality: modules and isomorphs 102
• 4.7 Coarticulation in speech and sign 106
• 4.8 Modularism versus associationism 115
• 5 Do we have a genetically programmed drive to acquire language? 121
• 5.1 Universal grammar 122
• 5.2 Are there genetically determined milestones in language development? 123
• 5.3 What must be mastered? Structure and plasticity 126
• 5.4 The critical period for acquisition and species specificity 127
• 5.5 A grammar gene? 132
• 5.6 Past tense and semimodularity 133
• 5.7 Distributed neuronal circuits and neural Darwinism 139
• 5.8 The nature of a gestural acquisition theory 140
• 6 Language from the body politic 143
• 6.1 Language from a special part of the universe 143
• 6.2 Movement, brain, society, language 149
• 7 The origin of syntax: gesture as name and relation 161
• 7.1 The system of language 161
• 7.2 The second subsystem 166
• 7.3 Language from the whole brain 167
• 7.4 Sign languages and manual gestures 174
• 7.5 Gestural syntax 176
• 7.6 The tree in the seed 178
• 7.7 The opening of the seed 182
• 7.8 Language coevolving with culture 186
• 7.9 Elaborating the pattern 187
• 7.10 Gesture and iconicity 191
• 7.11 Signaling syntax 194
• 8 Language from the body: an evolutionary perspective 198
• 8.1 The hominid adaptive complex 199
• 8.2 Darwinian theory: gradualism, incrementalism, and punctuation 203
• 8.3 Evolution of cerebral asymmetry 209
• 8.4 The hominid life style 214
• 8.5 The ancestral stock 215
• 8.6 Hominid social behavior 217
• 8.7 Origin and evolution of language 223
• 8.8 Language and longevity as evolutionary problems 230
• 8.9 Language from the body: final metaphors 234.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [273]-254) and index.

ISBN:

0521462134

OCLC:

29953348