Part of
From Gesture in Conversation to Visible Action as Utterance: Essays in honor of Adam KendonEdited by Mandana Seyfeddinipur and Marianne Gullberg
[Not in series 188] 2014
► pp. 289–308
Adam Kendon has contributed to every facet of gesture studies, from the co-speech gestures that occur with talk, to the silent gestures that replace talk. This chapter describes work I have done that follows in Adam’s footsteps. I first examine silent gesture in two groups: (1) children whose hearing losses prevent them from learning spoken language and whose hearing parents have not exposed them to sign language, and (2) hearing speakers asked to abandon their spoken language and use gesture to communicate – gesture when it becomes language. I then examine co-speech gesture, exploring how gesture works together with speech to help hearing children learn language (as well other topics) – gesture when it is part of language.