Teaching methods
Lectures; student presentations; practical exercises.
Students will give an oral presentation in class; the final examination is a course paper based on a small empirical study on gestures and/or sign language, which can be conducted in groups.
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Objectives
Most research on language takes speech as the main domain of investigation. However, speakers use not only speech but also meaningful hand movements called ‘gestures' when they speak. Furthermore, deaf communities use sign languages that are produced and perceived only in the visual-spatial modality. This course aims to give an interdisciplinary and state of the art overview of the role of the body in the structuring and functioning of the human language faculty. The course will present findings from these new fields relating them to discussions of embodied cognition and semantics, situated use of language, the link between language and action and their neural correlates.
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Contents
The course consists of several modules as described below.
Introduction : The theoretical significance of visual modes of language
Embodied cognition/semantics
Modality and language
Situated language use
Gestures with language: Co-speech gestures
Introduction to gesture basics - definitions; structure; theories
The role of gestures in processing of language - production and comprehension
The role of gestures in language acquisition (first, second, bilingual)
The role of gestures in social-cognitive development
Gestures and the brain
Gestures without language
Pantomimes, home signs
Sign Language
Introduction to sign language grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax)
Emerging sign languages
Sign language processing/comparison with speech processing
Acquisition of sign language
Sign language and the brain
Role of gesture and sign in the evolution of language
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Examination
written exam
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Literature
The literature consists of a Reader of chapters and journal articles. In addition, 3 text books will be used:
Emmorey, K. (2002). Language, Cognition, and the Brain: Insights from Sign Language Research. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
McNeill, D. (1985). Hand and Mind. What Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tomasello, M. (2008). Origins of Human Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Extra information
April 13 - June 22, 2010 Tuesday 13.45.-15.30 and Thursday 15.45-17.30
Location MPI 364
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