Why We Gesture
The Surprising Role of Hand Movements in Communication

Bringing together twenty-five years of research, Why We Gesture offers a radical new perspective on gesture-speech unity.

David McNeill (Author)

9781316502365, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 December 2015

221 pages, 118 b/w illus. 11 tables
22.7 x 15.1 x 1 cm, 0.36 kg

'This extraordinary volume synthesises McNeill's trailblazing work on the links between gesture, speech, and language in mind and brain, in interaction, evolution, and development. It is engaging, compelling, and indispensable.' Marianne Gullberg

Gestures are fundamental to the way we communicate, yet our understanding of this communicative impulse is clouded by a number of ingrained assumptions. Are gestures merely ornamentation to speech? Are they simply an 'add-on' to spoken language? Why do we gesture? These and other questions are addressed in this fascinating book. McNeill explains that the common view of language and gesture as separate entities is misinformed: language is inseparable from gesture. There is gesture-speech unity. Containing over 100 illustrations, Why We Gesture provides visual evidence to support the book's central argument that gestures orchestrate speech. This compelling book will be welcomed by students and researchers working in linguistics, psychology and communication.

Part I. Gesture-Orchestrated Speech: 1. Why we gesture
2. The growth point
3. New form of human action
4. Orchestration and unpacking
5. Mimicry and metaphor
Part II. Phylogenesis, Ontogenesis, Brain: 6. Phylogenesis
7. Ontogenesis
8. Brain
Part III. The Last Page: 9. Why we gesture (again).

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Sign languages, Braille & other linguistic communication [CFZ], Psycholinguistics [CFD]