Description

Book Synopsis
This book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the evolution of language, and in particular the origins of syntax. The authors 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.

Trade Review
'The authors display a broad and deep scholarship, often provocative and stimulating, but never tendentious, and happily free of the polemic tone that mars much linguistic argument.' Michael Studdert-Kennedy
'This book links studies of sign language and gesture with recent ideas about human evolution in a highly interesting way. It presents the important idea of 'semantic phonology' and suggests how syntax may have arisen from the inherent structure of practical actions.' Adam Kendon

Table of Contents
Preface; 1. The universe of gesture; 2. The nature of gesture; 3. Are signed and spoken languages differently organized?; 4. Is language modular?; 5. Do we have a genetically programmed drive to acquire language?; 6. Language from the body politic; 7. The origin of syntax: gesture as name and relation; 8. Language from the body: an evolutionary perspective; References; Index.

Gesture and the Nature of Language

    Product form

    A Paperback by David F. Armstrong, William C. Stokoe, Sherman E. Wilcox

    £52.20

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      Book details

      Publisher Cambridge University Press
      Published 3/16/1995 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN-13 9780521467728
      978-0521467728
      ISBN-10 0521467721
      Also in:
      Grammar, syntax and morphology Sociolinguistics

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      This book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the evolution of language, and in particular the origins of syntax. The authors 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.

      Trade Review
      'The authors display a broad and deep scholarship, often provocative and stimulating, but never tendentious, and happily free of the polemic tone that mars much linguistic argument.' Michael Studdert-Kennedy
      'This book links studies of sign language and gesture with recent ideas about human evolution in a highly interesting way. It presents the important idea of 'semantic phonology' and suggests how syntax may have arisen from the inherent structure of practical actions.' Adam Kendon

      Table of Contents
      Preface; 1. The universe of gesture; 2. The nature of gesture; 3. Are signed and spoken languages differently organized?; 4. Is language modular?; 5. Do we have a genetically programmed drive to acquire language?; 6. Language from the body politic; 7. The origin of syntax: gesture as name and relation; 8. Language from the body: an evolutionary perspective; References; Index.

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