Rough‐and‐tumble play (RT) is a widespread phenomenon in mammals. Since it involves
competition, whereby one animal attempts to gain advantage over another, RT runs the risk …

The movements we make with our hands both reflect our mental processes and help to
shape them. Our actions and gestures can affect our mental representations of actions and …

Humans are the only primates that make music. But the evolutionary origins and functions of
music are unclear. Given that in traditional cultures music making and dancing are often …

Great apes give gestures deliberately and voluntarily, in order to influence particular target
audiences, whose direction of attention they take into account when choosing which type of …

Chimpanzees' use of gesture was described in the first detailed field study [1, 2], and natural
use of specific gestures has been analyzed [3–5]. However, it was systematic work with …

In this, the first of two ground-breaking volumes on the nature of language in the light of the
way it evolved, James Hurford looks at how the world first came to have a meaning in the …

Volume I of the handbook presents contemporary, multidisciplinary, historical, theoretical,
and methodological aspects of how body movements relate to language. It documents how …

Great ape gestural communication is known to be intentional, elaborate and flexible; yet
there is controversy over the best interpretation of the system and how gestures are …

The performance of language is multimodal, not confined to speech. Review of monkey and
ape communication demonstrates greater flexibility in the use of hands and body than for …

What aspects of infants' prelinguistic communication are most valuable for learning to speak,
and why? We test whether early vocalizations and gestures drive the transition to word use …