In contrast to scholars and signers in the nineteenth century, William Stokoe conceived of
American Sign Language (ASL) as a unique linguistic tradition with roots in nineteenth …

It is widely assumed that one of the fundamental properties of spoken language is the
arbitrary relation between sound and meaning. Some exceptions in the form of nonarbitrary …

INTRODUCTION Human speech manifests itself in spectacular diversity, ranging from
ubiquitous sounds such as “m” and “a” to the rare click consonants in some languages of …

Evidence is reviewed for widespread phonological and phonetic tendencies in
contemporary languages. The evidence is based largely on the frequency of sound types in …

How do the signs of sign language differ from the gestures that speakers produce when they
talk? We address this question by focusing on pointing. Pointing signs play an important role …

We make the case that, contra standard assumption in linguistic theory, the sound systems
of human languages are adapted to their environment. While not conclusive, this plausible …

All living beings try to save effort, and humans are no exception. This groundbreaking book
shows how we save time and energy during communication by unconsciously making …

Phonetic reduction arises in the course of typical language production, when language
users produce a less clearly articulated form of a word. An important factor that affects …

This study offers evidence for an environmental effect on languages while relying on
continuous linguistic and continuous ecological variables. Evidence is presented for a …

Anybody who reads or writes Chinese characters knows that they obey a grammar of sorts:
though numerous, they are built out of a much smaller set of constituents, often interpretable …