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Sign, language, and gesture in the brain: Some comments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2017

Ruth Campbell
Affiliation:
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, England, United Kingdom.r.campbell@ucl.ac.ukb.woll@ucl.ac.uk
Bencie Woll
Affiliation:
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, England, United Kingdom.r.campbell@ucl.ac.ukb.woll@ucl.ac.uk

Abstract

In contrast with two widely held and contradictory views – that sign languages of deaf people are “just gestures,” or that sign languages are “just like spoken languages” – the view from sign linguistics and developmental research in cognition presented by Goldin-Meadow & Brentari (G-M&B) indicates a more complex picture. We propose that neuroscience research suggests that a similar approach needs to be taken and offer some examples from research on the brain bases of sign language perception.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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