In this chapter we examine some of the properties that have been described for primary sign languages and draw comparisons with forms of expression that occur in gesture, when used by speakers. We consider three topics: first, how a ‘phonological structure’ may emerge from iconic forms of expression, second, the use of space in the expression of relationships between discourse elements and third, the nature of ‘classifiers’, as this has been described in primary sign languages. We suggest that there are parallels in the way speakers use depictive gestures and the way signers use ‘classifiers’. We conclude that forms of expression in gesture have much in common with certain forms of expression in primary sign languages. That is, there is common ground between ‘gesture’ and ‘sign’.

Iconicity, sign formation and the emergence of ‘phonology’

If the gestural medium is to be used as the sole means of linguistic expression it is obvious that gestures that can serve as referents to objects and actions must be created. This scarcely needs demonstration, and, indeed, as we saw, from the experiments by Bloom and Dufour and by Singleton and colleagues, described in Chapter 14, as soon as speakers were required to use only gesture to describe something, they immediately created a lexicon of gestural forms which they used in gesture sentences with considerable consistency.