Language and Gesture

Landmark study on the role of gestures in relation to speech and thought.

David McNeill (Edited by)

9780521771665, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 August 2000

420 pages, 44 b/w illus. 31 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.79 kg

This landmark study examines the role of gestures in relation to speech and thought. Leading scholars, including psychologists, linguists and anthropologists, offer state-of-the-art analyses to demonstrate that gestures are not merely an embellishment of speech but are integral parts of language itself. Language and Gesture offers a wide range of theoretical approaches, with emphasis not simply on behavioural descriptions but also on the underlying processes. The book has strong cross-linguistic and cross-cultural components, examining gestures by speakers of Mayan, Australian, East Asian as well as English and other European languages. The content is diverse including chapters on gestures during aphasia and severe stuttering, the first emergence of speech-gesture combinations of children, and a section on sign language. In a rapidly growing field of study this volume opens up the agenda for research into a new approach to understanding language, thought and society.

Introduction David McNeill
Part I. Gesture in Action: 1. Pointing, gesture spaces, and mental maps John Haviland
2. Language and gesture: Unity or duality? Adam Kendon
3. Verbal and gestural expressions of space in socio-spatial context: The integration of space, spatial modality and spatial context Asli Özyürek
4. Gestures that count Charles Goodwin
5. Gestural interaction between the instructor and the learner in origami instruction Nobuhiro Furuyama
6. Gestures, knowledge, and the world Curtis Le Baron and Jurgen Streeck
Part II. Gesture in Language: 7. Growth points in thinking-for-speaking David McNeill and Susan D. Duncan
8. How representational gestures help speaking Sotaro Kita
9. When do most spontaneous representational gestures actually occur with respect to speech? Shuichi Nobe
10. The disruption of gesture by stuttering: insights into the nature of the gesture-speech integration Rachel I. Mayberry and Joselynne Jaques
11. A multichannel view of communication: the grounding of language comprehension in perception Elena Levy and Carol Fowler
12. Gesture and the transition from one-to two-word speech: when hand and mouth come together Cynthia Butcher and Susan Goldin-Meadow
Part III. Modeling Gesture Performance: 13. Lexical gestures and lexical access: a process model Robert M. Krauss, Yihsiu Chen and Rebecca F. Gottesman
14. The production of gesture and speech Jan Peter de Ruiter
15. Catchments and contexts: non-modular factors in speech and gesture production David McNeill
Part IV. From Gesture to Sign: 16. Blended spaces and deixis in sign language discourse Scott Liddell
17. Gestural precursors to linguistic constructs: how input shapes the form of language Jill Morford and Judy Kegl
18. Gesture to sign (language) William C. Stokoe.

Subject Areas: Sociolinguistics [CFB]