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Vocal laughter punctuates speech and manual signing: Novel evidence for similar linguistic and neurological mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2017

Robert R. Provine
Robert R. Provine*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250. provine@umbc.edu
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Abstract

Vocal laughter fills conversations between speakers with normal hearing and between deaf users of American Sign Language, but laughter rarely intrudes on the phrase structure of spoken or signed conversation, being akin to punctuation in written text. This punctuation effect indicates that language, whether vocal or signed, is dominant over laughter, and that speech and manual signing involve similar mechanisms.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e69
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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