Review of research on gesture

[Randy LaPolla]

Yes, Bolinger was way ahead of the pack very early on in many ways (like Wally). Another one who has always taken prosody seriously is Michael Halliday (being a student of Firth probably helped in that regard!), seeing it as part of the grammar. Bill Greaves, who wrote a book with Michael on Intonation in English (M.A.K. Halliday and W. Greaves, Intonation in the Grammar of English, LONDON: EQUINOX. 2008. PP. IX, 224. CD ROM) will not talk about linguistic forms without intonation, calling them "dead words"!

Randy

On May 13, 2014, at 11:50 AM, Sherman Wilcox wrote:

> One of my favorite people to read about this is Dwight Bolinger, especially "Intonation and Its Parts" and also his wonderful essay in American Speech, "Intonation and Gesture."
> -- 
> Sherman
> 
> On 12 May 2014, at 16:58, Wallace Chafe wrote:
> 
>> I have no wish to stir up another hornet's nest on this topic, but I
>> wanted to point to something I think has already been mentioned in
>> passing a couple times: that is, parallels between gesture and prosody
>> (pitch, volume, timing, and voice quality). At least some of the uses of
>> prosody appear to have things in common with gesture, and one might even
>> think of prosody as gesturing by the lungs and larynx. Speaking in a
>> monotone is a little like speaking with one's hands tied behind one's back.
>> 
>> --Wally