Original Signs: Gesture, Sign, and the Sources of Language - Hardcover

Armstrong, David F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1563680750 ISBN 13: 9781563680755

Publisher: Gallaudet University Press, 1999

Synopsis

Since Darwin's time, the majority of evolutionary linguists have theorized that language defines human beings and that speech defines language. In Original Signs, David Armstrong disputes the latter concept by showing that language has evolved in many different ways through many different paths, not just speech. The present evidence rests in the known fact that when deaf people sign, they are using a well-formed human language.
Armstrong addresses in turn the various thoughts on language development put forth by the major theorists, including Stephen J. Gould, Steven Pinker, Noam Chomsky, Terrence Deacon, and others, to finely hone his concept of the varied forms in which language developed.

About this title

About the Author:

David F. Armstrong is an associate professor in the School of Management and University Budget Director at Gallaudet University.

Review:

Armstrong's cogent, highly readable book explains the basic linguistic concepts and academic controversies in a way that makes for an excellent introduction to the study of language. But this is an introduction with an important difference. Unlike most authors, Armstrong includes gesture and signed language at every step, rather than treating the visual channel of language as an afterthought. He makes a strong case for the Whorfian, comparative, and relativist approach to languages as a necessary complement to the Chomskyan universalist perspective that has dominated the field in recent decades, and Armstrong's historical analysis illustrates how the politics of social attitude has influenced scientific views about such questions as whether or not a signed language can be a real language in its own right. His argument starts with the premise that both forms, signed and vocal, are kinds of language, and he examines the important differences as well as the similarities between them, providing insight into basic questions about the nature and evolution of language as a multimodal phenomenon -- audio and visual in its essence.

About this edition

• Publisher: Gallaudet University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1563680750
• ISBN 13: 9781563680755
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184