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This book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the evolution of language, 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. Written in a clear and accessible style, Gesture and the Nature of Language will be indispensable reading for all those interested in the origins of language.
In The Gestural Origin of Language, Wilcox and Armstrong use
evidence from and about sign languages to explore the origins of
language as we know it today. According to their model, it is sign,
not spoken languages, that is the original mode of human
communication. The authors demonstrate that modern language is
derived from practical actions and gestures that were increasingly
recognised as having the potential to represent and hence to
communicate. In other words, the fundamental ability that allows us
to use language is our ability to use pictures of icons, rather
than linguistic symbols. Evidence from the human fossil record
supports the authors' claim by showing that we were anatomically
able to produce gestures and signs before we were able to speak
fluently. Although speech evolved later as a secondary linguistic
communication device that eventually replaced sign language as the
primary mode of communication, speech has never entirely replaced
signs and gestures.
This book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the
evolution of language, 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.
Written in a clear and accessible style, Gesture and the Nature of
Language will be indispensable reading for all those interested in
the origins of language.
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