Language in hand: why sign came before speech

Autor/a: STOKOE, William C.
Año: 2002
Editorial: Washington: Gallaudet University Press, 2002
Tipo de código: ISBN
Código: 1-56368-103-X
Soporte: Digital

Temas

Lingüística, Lingüística » Lingüística de otras Lenguas de Signos

Detalles

William C. Stokoe begins his exploration of the origin of human language with a 2400-year-old quote by Democritus: “Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.” Stokoe capitalizes upon this simple credo in this far-ranging examination of the scholarly topography to support his formula for the development of language in humans: gesture-to-language-to-speech. Intrinsic to this is the proposition that speech is sufficient for language, but not necessary. Chance brought human ancestors down from the trees to the ground, freeing their hands for gesture, and then sign language, a progression that came from the necessity to communicate.