Description
Book SynopsisThis 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 ContentsPreface; 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.
