Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2008 - Volume 31, Issue 05  

Open Peer Commentary

Time on our hands: How gesture and the understanding of the past and future helped shape language

Michael C. Corballisa1

a1 Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand. m.corballis@auckland.ac.nz http://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/people/Corballis/Corballis.htm

Abstract

Recognising that signed languages are true languages adds to the variety of forms that languages can take. Such recognition also allows one to differentiate those aspects of language that depend on the medium (voiced or signed) from those that depend on more cognitive aspects. At least some aspects of language, such as symbolic representation, time markers, and generativity, may derive from the communication of the products of mental time travel, and from the sharing of remembered past and planned future episodes.

Related Articles

    Language as shaped by the brain Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, and Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501 christiansen@cornell.edu http://www.psych.cornell.edu/people/Faculty/mhc27.html; Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom n.chater@ucl.ac.uk http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/people/profiles/chater_nick.htm