URL: https://www.superlinguo.com/post/778939101870194688/gesture-a-slim-guide-five-fun-facts
The author, Lauren Gawne, of the book Gesture: A Slim Guide shares five facts in preparation of the book launching...and it looks SUPER interesting.
This book provides a broad introduction to current understandings of the nature and function of gesture as a feature of communication. This Slim Guide covers the ways gesture works alongside speech and the different categories of gesture. The way these categories are used varies across cultures and languages, and even across specific interactions. We acquire gesture as part of language, and it is deeply entwined with language in the brain. Gesture has an important role in the origin of language, and in shaping the future of human communication. The study of gesture makes a crucial interdisciplinary contribution to our understanding of human communication. This Slim Guide provides an introduction to Gesture Studies for readers of all backgrounds.
The five facts are great too:
- The cover is a deepcut reference to my first gesture research project
- Learning a signed language will affect the way you gesture in spoken language
- You can make people imagine emphasis differently by changing the placement of emphatic gestures
- Dolphins and seals demonstrate the capacity to follow human pointing gestures
- People still gesture even if their audience can’t see them, but the way they gesture changes
Reminds me of the time I knocked over a plant while speaking in front of an audience...twice. Because my gesturing was verbose.