While it was once thought that gestures were more or less peripheral to language and were used in largely non-principled ways, current studies continue to build evidence that gesture is central to meaning construction. This course looks at current thought and theory regarding the role of gesture from an evolutionary perspective, as semantic and grammatical units, as co-speech elements, and in signed language. Students may not hold credit for both LING 3350 and LING 3840 when titled "Language and Gesture." [3 credits]
While it was once thought that gestures were more or less peripheral to language and were used in largely non-principled ways, current studies continue to build evidence that gesture is central to meaning construction. This course looks at current thought and theory regarding the role of gesture from an evolutionary perspective, as semantic and grammatical units, as co-speech elements, and in signed language. Students may not hold credit for both LING 3350 and LING 3840 when titled "Language and Gesture." [3 credits]
