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Sign languages are problematic for a gestural origins theory of language evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2005

Karen Emmorey
Karen Emmorey*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037 http://www-psy.ucsd.edu:80/~kemmorey
*
emmorey@salk.edu
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Abstract:

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Sign languages exhibit all the complexities and evolutionary advantages of spoken languages. Consequently, sign languages are problematic for a theory of language evolution that assumes a gestural origin. There are no compelling arguments why the expanding spiral between protosign and protospeech proposed by Arbib would not have resulted in the evolutionary dominance of sign over speech.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 2005, pp. 130 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005