Re: Language, gesture, etc.

Phil Young (PYOUNG@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU)
Tue, 13 Feb 1996 11:55:36 -0800

For those interested, there is an article (now old) by Gordon Hewes, "Primate
communication and the gestural origin of language" (Current Anthropology
14(1-2):5-24 [1973]) that postulates that (to oversimplify) gestural language
was the precursor of human speech.

And there is a new (1995) book, _Gesture and the Nature of Language_, by D. F.
Armstrong, W. C. Stokoe, and S. E. Wilcox (Boulder: Westview Press), that
argues for the co-evolution of gesture and speech. They argue "that manual and
vocal communication developed in parallel, and that the basic elements of
syntax are intrinsic to gesture."

Phil Young
Anthropology
University of Oregon