Ebook315 pages6 hours
Gesture and Thought
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this ebook
Gesturing is such an integral yet unconscious part of communication that we are mostly oblivious to it. But if you observe anyone in conversation, you are likely to see his or her fingers, hands, and arms in some form of spontaneous motion. Why? David McNeill, a pioneer in the ongoing study of the relationship between gesture and language, set about answering this question over twenty-five years ago. In Gesture and Thought he brings together years of this research, arguing that gesturing, an act which has been popularly understood as an accessory to speech, is actually a dialectical component of language.
Gesture and Thought expands on McNeill’s acclaimed classic Hand and Mind. While that earlier work demonstrated what gestures reveal about thought, here gestures are shown to be active participants in both speaking and thinking. Expanding on an approach introduced by Lev Vygotsky in the 1930s, McNeill posits that gestures are key ingredients in an “imagery-language dialectic” that fuels both speech and thought. Gestures are both the “imagery” and components of “language.” The smallest element of this dialectic is the “growth point,” a snapshot of an utterance at its beginning psychological stage. Utilizing several innovative experiments he created and administered with subjects spanning several different age, gender, and language groups, McNeill shows how growth points organize themselves into utterances and extend to discourse at the moment of speaking.
An ambitious project in the ongoing study of the relationship of human communication and thought, Gesture and Thought is a work of such consequence that it will influence all subsequent theory on the subject.
Gesture and Thought expands on McNeill’s acclaimed classic Hand and Mind. While that earlier work demonstrated what gestures reveal about thought, here gestures are shown to be active participants in both speaking and thinking. Expanding on an approach introduced by Lev Vygotsky in the 1930s, McNeill posits that gestures are key ingredients in an “imagery-language dialectic” that fuels both speech and thought. Gestures are both the “imagery” and components of “language.” The smallest element of this dialectic is the “growth point,” a snapshot of an utterance at its beginning psychological stage. Utilizing several innovative experiments he created and administered with subjects spanning several different age, gender, and language groups, McNeill shows how growth points organize themselves into utterances and extend to discourse at the moment of speaking.
An ambitious project in the ongoing study of the relationship of human communication and thought, Gesture and Thought is a work of such consequence that it will influence all subsequent theory on the subject.
Author
David McNeill
David McNeill is the Japan correspondent for The Independent and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He is the co-author of Strong in the Rain. He writes for The Irish Times and The Japan Times, while teaching at Sophia University in Tokyo. His work has appeared in Newsweek, New Scientist, Marie Claire, International Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, and on the BBC. He lives in Tokyo.
Related to Gesture and Thought
Related ebooks
Metaphors Dead and Alive, Sleeping and Waking: A Dynamic View Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPosture and Gesture: An Introduction to the Study of Physical Behaviour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPsychology of Human Movement Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Emotions Really Are: The Problem of Psychological Categories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Linguistics and Philosophy: The Controversial Interface Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reflections in Communication: An Interdisciplinary Approach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ambiguity of Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Theatre and Consciousness: Explanatory Scope and Future Potential Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMind, Body, World: Foundations of Cognitive Science Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Theory of Mind and Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmotions, Remembering and Feeling Better: Dealing with the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in Canada Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEngaging Ambience: Visual and Multisensory Methodologies and Rhetorical Theory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat We Mean by Experience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMisbehaving Science: Controversy and the Development of Behavior Genetics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImprovising Theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Language and the World: Essays New and Old Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErotic Attunement: Parenthood and the Ethics of Sensuality between Unequals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemes, Communities and Continuous Change: Chinese Internet Vernacular Explained Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsActivist WPA, The: Changing Stories About Writing and Writers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eureka Myth: Creators, Innovators, and Everyday Intellectual Property Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Networkologies: A Philosophy of Networks for a Hyperconnected Age - A Manifesto Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeaping into Dance Literacy through the Language of Dance® Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChanging on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Intimate Strangers: Commercial Surrogacy in Russia and Ukraine and the Making of Truth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ready to Wear: A Rhetoric of Wearable Computers and Reality-Shifting Media Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReading Is My Window: Books and the Art of Reading in Women’s Prisons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Networked Process: Dissolving Boundaries of Process and Post-Process Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related categories
Reviews for Gesture and Thought
Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars
4/5
5 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Gesture and Thought - David McNeill
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1