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Language is shaped by the body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Mark Aronoff ,
Irit Meir ,
Carol Padden  and
Wendy Sandler
Mark Aronoff
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11979-4376mark.aronoff@stonybrook.eduhttp://www.linguistics.stonybrook.edu/faculty/mark.aronoff
Irit Meir
Affiliation:
Department of Hebrew Language, Department of Disorders, and Sign Language Research Laboratory, University of Haifa, 31905 Haifa, Israelimeir@univ.haifa.ac.ilhttp://sandlersignlab.haifa.ac.il/html/html_eng/irit.htm
Carol Padden
Affiliation:
Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0503cpadden@ucsd.eduhttp://communication.ucsd.edu/people/f_padden.html
Wendy Sandler
Affiliation:
Department of English Language and Literature, and Sign Language Research Laboratory, University of Haifa, 31905 Haifa, Israelwsandler@research.haifa.ac.ilhttp://sandlersignlab.haifa.ac.il/wendy.htm
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Abstract

Sign languages provide direct evidence for the relation between human languages and the body that engenders them. We discuss the use of the hands to create symbols and the role of the body in sign language verb systems, especially in two quite recently developed sign languages, Israeli Sign Language and Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 509 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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