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What is a gesture? A lesson from comparative gesture research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2017

Katja Liebal
Katja Liebal*
Affiliation:
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany. [email protected]://www.ewi-psy.fu-berlin.de
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Abstract

Research into nonhuman primates’ gestures is often limited by the lack of clear criteria to define a gesture and by studying gestures separately from other communicative means. Despite the fundamental differences between the gestural communication of humans and other primates, I argue that sign language research might benefit from the lessons learned from these drawbacks and the current developments in primate communication research.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e62
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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