The Impulse to Gesture

Where Language, Minds, and Bodies Intersect

Simon Harrison

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English

Cambridge University Press
21 March 2024

Grammar, syntax; Communication studies; Cognition & cognitive psychology

Gestures are central to the way people use language when they interact. This book places our impulse to gesture at the very heart of linguistic structure: grammar. Based on the phenomenon of negation - a linguistic universal with clear grammatical and gestural manifestations - Simon Harrison argues that linguistic concepts are fundamentally multi modal and shows how they lead to recurrent bindings between grammar and gesture when people speak. Studying how speakers express negation multi modally in a range of social and professional contexts, Harrison explores how and when people gesture, what people achieve linguistically and discursively with their gestures, and why we find similar uses of gesture in different languages (including spoken and signed language). Establishing the inseparability of grammar and gesture, this book is an important reference for any researcher interested in the relation between language, gesture, and cognition.

By: Simon Harrison
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781108404693
ISBN 10: 1108404693
Pages: 251
Publication Date: 21 March 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. The impulse to gesture: spontaneous but constrained; 2. The grammar-gesture nexus: a mechanism for regularity in gesture; 3. Sync points in speech: evidence of grammatical affiliation for gesture; 4. Gesture as construal: blockage, force, and distance in space and mind; 5. Gesture sequences: wrist as hinge for shifts in discourse; 6. Patterns of gesturing: the business of 'horizontal palming'; 7. Wiping away: embodied interaction in speech and sign; 8. Impulse theory: how, when, and why we gesture.

Simon Harrison is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of English at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. His research has played a central role in bridging the divide between grammar and gesture.

Reviews for The Impulse to Gesture: Where Language, Minds, and Bodies Intersect

'Harrison's book offers an excellent example for how multimodal language use can be approached with a focus on grammatical phenomena. Numerous nicely discussed examples and a well-grounded discussion of theoretical and methodological aspects for such an endeavor make the book attractive to students as well as advanced scholars interested in a usage-based perspective on multimodal language use.' Jana Bressem, Journal of Pragmatics '… this book can be appreciated by anyone interested in any form linguistics and communication. The author does an incredible job to thoroughly make his case, addressing all the key constructs of cospeech gesticulation chapter by chapter, and in a way that is accessible to novices, and informative to scientists and linguistics alike.' J. Raouf Belkhir and Eduardo Navarrete, Perception