UID:
almafu_9960119253402883
Format:
1 online resource (ix, 260 pages) :
,
digital, PDF file(s).
ISBN:
0-511-62091-8
Content:
This book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the evolution of language, and in particular the origins of syntax. The authors argue that manual and vocal communication developed in parallel, and that the basic elements of syntax are intrinsic to gesture. They 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. They go on to examine the implications of their findings for linguistic theory and theories of the biological evolution of the capacity for language. 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.
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
,
Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: language from the body -- The universe of gesture -- 1.1 Signed and spoken languages -- 1.2 Speech as gesture -- 1.3 Signing as gesture -- 1.4 Semantic phonology -- 1.5 Language as gesture -- 1.6 An evolutionary perspective on language -- 1.7 Grasping syntax -- The nature of gesture -- 2.1 Comparing sign and speech -- 2.2 What is gesture? -- 2.3 Speech as gesture -- 2.4 The two faces of gesture -- 2.5 Perceptual categorization -- 2.6 The role of motor actions in perception -- 2.7 Global mappings, preconcepts, and presyntax -- 2.8 Event cognition and language -- 2.9 Visible gestures: seeing language -- Are signed and spoken languages differently organized? -- 3.1 Language from a different part of the body -- 3.2 Describing signed language -- 3.3 Seeking organizational similarity at the sublexical level -- 3.4 Looking at differences -- 3.5 Summary -- Is language modular? -- 4.1 Modular versus associationist theories of language -- 4.2 Modularity and cerebral localization -- 4.3 Plasticity and associationism -- 4.4 Linguistic modality and modularity -- 4.5 "Spatial" syntax and the left brain -- 4.6 Simultaneity and sequentiality: modules and isomorphs -- 4.7 Coarticulation in speech and sign -- 4.8 Modularism versus associationism -- Do we have a genetically programmed drive to acquire language? -- 5.1 Universal grammar -- 5.2 Are there genetically determined milestones in language development? -- 5.3 What must be mastered? Structure and plasticity -- 5.4 The critical period for acquisition and species specificity -- 5.5 A grammar gene? -- 5.6 Past tense and semimodularity -- 5.7 Distributed neuronal circuits and neural Darwinism -- 5.8 The nature of a gestural acquisition theory -- Language from the body politic.
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6.1 Language from a special part of the universe -- 6.2 Movement, brain, society, language -- The origin of syntax: gesture as name and relation -- 7.1 The system of language -- 7.2 The second subsystem -- 7.3 Language from the whole brain -- 7.4 Sign languages and manual gestures -- 7.5 Gestural syntax -- 7.6 The tree in the seed -- 7.7 The opening of the seed -- 7.8 Language coevolving with culture -- 7.9 Elaborating the pattern -- 7.10 Gesture and iconicity -- 7.11 Signaling syntax -- Language from the body: an evolutionary perspective -- 8.1 The hominid adaptive complex -- 8.2 Darwinian theory: gradualism, incrementalism, and punctuation -- 8.3 Evolution of cerebral asymmetry -- 8.4 The hominid life style -- 8.5 The ancestral stock -- 8.6 Hominid social behavior -- 8.7 Origin and evolution of language -- 8.8 Language and longevity as evolutionary problems -- 8.9 Language from the body: final metaphors -- References -- Author index -- Subject index.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-521-46772-1
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-521-46213-4
Language:
English
URL:
Volltext
(lizenzpflichtig)
URL:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620911
URL:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620911
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