Why We Gesture: The Surprising Role of Hand Movements in Communication by David McNeill

by David McNeill

This unique contribution to the field builds upon decades of research and presents a compelling new perspective on speech and gesture. Why We Gesture brings gestures to the fore, countering the traditional view that they are simply add-ons with a decorative function. McNeill's central idea is that gestures orchestrate speech.


Editorial Reviews
Review

"David McNeill explores and extends his life's work, the study of the gesture/language system - our unique, human, expressive being - in this exhilarating, challenging, masterly tour-de-force."
Jonathan Cole

"David McNeill, quite simply, has fundamentally changed how we think about human bodily communication, particularly hand gesture. His views are immensely influential. He tackles the major theoretical questions in this area with great courage and conviction, and his precise arguments really do define the field."
Geoff Beattie, Edge Hill University

"David McNeill's decades of groundbreaking work on gesture have transformed the study of language. This book presents penetrating new insights into the embodied nature of utterance formation."
Elena Levy, University of Connecticut

"This extraordinary volume synthesises McNeill's trailblazing work on the links between gesture, speech, and language in mind and brain, in interaction, evolution, and development. It is engaging, compelling, and indispensable."
Marianne Gullberg

Genres: Linguistics

Paperback

First published December 31, 2015

About the author

David McNeill (born 1933 in California, USA)[1] is an American psychologist and writer specializing in scientific research into psycholinguistics and especially the relationship of language to thought, and the gestures that accompany discourse.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M...

Reviews

[Tomek D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book brings only a few new things to the discussion that the author started some years ago with his previous works on gestures. This is a nice overview of his previous writings, more accessible and reader-friendly, but not really novel. A good book but it’s definitely for people familiar with the topic. There are not any detailed definitions of gestures or gesture typologies, they are rather embedded into the book and taken for granted.