Results 51 to 60 of about 607 (149)
Topics in Cognitive Science, Volume 17, Issue 3, Page 609-624, July 2025.Abstract Languages are neither designed in classrooms nor drawn from dictionaries—they are products of human minds and human interactions. However, it is challenging to understand how structure grows in these circumstances because generations of use and transmission shape and reshape the structure of the languages themselves.
Molly Flaherty, Marieke Schouwstra
wiley +1 more source
Teachers’ Gestures and How They Matter
Topics in Cognitive Science, Volume 17, Issue 3, Page 545-568, July 2025.Abstract How do teachers’ gestures influence students’ learning? This article reviews research investigating the role of gestures in communication, focusing on teachers’ communication with their students, primarily in mathematics and science instruction.
R. Breckinridge Church +4 more
wiley +1 more source
Sign Languages of Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea, and their Challenges for Sign Language Typology [PDF]
, 2019 The diverse sign languages (SLs) between established deaf community SLs and homesign have been called the “grey area” of SL linguistics, by virtue of their resistance to classification and the fact that they are understudied (Nyst ...
Reed, Lauren W
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Gestural Iconicity and Alignment as Steps in the Evolution of Language
Topics in Cognitive Science, Volume 17, Issue 3, Page 469-491, July 2025.Abstract Studies of the evolution of language rely heavily on comparisons to nonhuman primates, particularly the gestural communication of nonhuman apes. Differences between human and ape gestures are largely ones of degree rather than kind. For example, while human gestures are more flexible, ape gestures are not inflexible.
Erica A. Cartmill
wiley +1 more source
The emergence of referential shift devices in three young sign languages [PDF]
, 2021 Speakers use a range of devices, such as nouns and pronouns, to introduce referents and to indicate a shift between multiple referents. Sign languages also exploit different devices for signalling reference and referential shift.
Sandler, Wendy, Stamp, Rose
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An evolutionary approach to sign language emergence:From state to process [PDF]
, 2017 Understanding the relationship between gesture, sign, and speech offers a valuable tool for investigating how language emerges from a nonlinguistic state.
Kirby, Simon +2 more
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The social structure of signing communities and lexical variation:A cross-linguistic comparison of three unrelated sign languages [PDF]
, 2023 Claims have been made about the relationship between the degree of lexical variation and the social structure of a sign language community (e.g., population size), but to date there exist no large-scale cross-linguistic comparisons to address these ...
Lutzenberger, Hannah +3 more
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When does a system become phonological? Handshape production in gesturers, signers, and homesigners [PDF]
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2011 Sign languages display remarkable crosslinguistic consistencies in the use of handshapes. In particular, handshapes used in classifier predicates display a consistent pattern in finger complexity: classifier handshapes representing objects display more finger complexity than those representing how objects are handled.
Diane, Brentari +3 more
openaire +2 more sources
On language acquisition in speech and sign: development of combinatorial structure in both modalities. [PDF]
, 2014 Languages are composed of a conventionalized system of parts which allow speakers and signers to generate an infinite number of form-meaning mappings through phonological and morphological combinations. This level of linguistic organization distinguishes
Morgan, G.
core +3 more sources
Is Lhasa Tibetan Sign Language emerging, endangered, or both? [PDF]
, 2017 This article offers the first overview of the recent emergence of Tibetan Sign Language (TibSL) in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China.
Hofer, Theresia
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