This landmark study examines the role of gestures in relation to speech and thought.
Leading scholars, including psychologists, linguists and anthropologists, offer state-of-the-
art analyses to demonstrate that gestures are not merely an embellishment of speech but
are integral parts of language itself. Language and Gesture offers a wide range of theoretical
approaches, with emphasis not simply on behavioural descriptions but also on the
underlying processes. The book has strong cross-linguistic and cross-cultural components …

'Language'and'gesture'have long been held to be different, yet at the same time a
relationship between them has always been recognized. However, whether they are
regarded as belonging together or not depends upon how these words are defined. Thus if,
with Armstrong, Stokoe & Wilcox, we accept Studdert-Kennedy's (1987: 77) definition
of'gesture'as" an equivalence class of coordinated movements that achieve some end"(see
Armstrong et al. 1995: 43), then, insofar as both speech and, let us say, gestures of the …