ABSTRACT This project is concerned with the study of visual gestural languages, primary linguistic systems that are not derivative from spoken language. The existence of such fully expressive systems arising outside the mainstream of spoken languages affords a new vantage point for investigating biological constraints on linguistic form. The research centers around the structured use of space and movement in the grammatical processes of signed languages. The investigator couples new linguistic analyses with powerful techniques for three dimensional computergraphic analysis in a series of experiments on the neurological control of language and movement. The experiments probe signers with deficits at different levels of linguistic representation and motor control, examining the neurological control of language and movement through the quantitative analysis of the breakdown of both. The convergence of formal linguistic, objective three- dimensional measurement, and neurological approaches will provide unique information about the functional anatomy of language itself.
