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What the hands can tell us about language emergence
1University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA. sgm@uchicago.edu.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|July 3, 2016
Summary
Human language effectively uses both speech and gestures. The manual modality (hands) excels at mimetic (iconic) communication, while the oral modality (speech) is ideal for segmented language, explaining language
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Anthropology
Background:
- Investigates the dominance of oral modality in human language despite the potential of the manual modality.
- Explores the dual-code hypothesis of communication, involving discrete/segmented and analog/mimetic formats.
Purpose of the Study:
- To understand why spoken language predominates across cultures.
- To analyze the complementary roles of oral and manual modalities in human communication.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of language modalities, considering both sign languages and co-speech gestures.
- Theoretical framework integrating the manual modality into language evolution and function.
Main Results:
- The manual modality is as adept at segmented encoding as the oral modality, evidenced by sign languages.
- The manual modality is preferentially suited for mimetic encoding, as seen in co-speech gestures.
Conclusions:
- Human communication is optimized by integrating segmented (speech) and mimetic (gesture) codes.
- The manual modality plays a crucial, often underestimated, role in both the origin and development of language.
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