The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of the Positivity Principle. 2. Theoretical Rationale for the Positivity Principle. 3. Empirical Rationale for the Positivity Principle. 4. Boundary Conditions for the Positivity Principle. 5. Applications of the Positivity Principle

The temporal signatures that characterize speech – especially its prosodic qualities – are observable in the movements of the hands and bodies of its speakers. A neurobiological account of these prosodic rhythms is thus likely to benefit from insights on the neural coding principles underlying co-speech gestures. Here we consider whether the vestibular system, a sensory system that encodes movements of the body, contributes to prosodic processing. Careful review of the vestibular system’s anatomy and physiology, its role in dynamic attention and active inference, its relevance for the perception and production of rhythmic sound sequences, and its involvement in vocalization all point to a potential role for vestibular codes in the neural tracking of speech. Noting that the kinematics and time course of co-speech movements closely mirror prosodic fluctuations in spoken language, we propose that the vestibular system cooperates with other afferent networks to encode and decode prosodic features in multimodal discourse and possibly in the processing of speech presented unimodally.

In 1960, William Stokoe provided evidence that signs were not simply gestures; that signs, like spoken words, have abstract internal structures. His discovery provided the first justification for treating sign languages as real languages rather than gesture systems. Subsequent analyses of signs remained consistent with Stokoe’s analysis in that they excluded nonlexical gesturing. Some signs, however, appear to require noncategorical (gestural) specifications for directions and locations. Indicating signs, for example, can be articulated toward people and things in an unlimited number of directions. In addition, depicting verbs appear to be capable of depicting entities at an unlimited number of locations ahead of the signer. Chapter 1 explains how analysts incorporated morphemic spatial loci into their fully morphemic, nongestural analyses of these signs. These analyses were later challenged with partly lexical, partly gestural analyses. This was followed by an increased interest in how signers gesture. As a precursor to justifying the partly lexical, partly gestural analyses, the chapter proposes definitions of gesture and depiction that are applicable to the analyses in the book.

This chapter examines how metaphor unfolds through the operation of the entire body in communicative and cultural context.

This chapter analyses Wittgenstein’s transitional period and his shift from logical to linguistic models of context. Centred on his work in early 1930s and on his ‘Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough’, it shows how Wittgenstein moved from seeing context as singular logic to viewing it as multiple ‘logical spaces’ or ‘grammars’. This shift prefigures later anthropological moves away from formal systems while retaining some commitment to structure through language as model.

This chapter theorises the embodiment of timbral gesture in electronic dance music (EDM) as a convergence point between the vexed categories of affect and meaning. It is argued that timbre is inseparable from gesture in the listening experience and that the embodiment of synthesised gestures affords listeners new ways of experiencing their body-minds by exercising their perceptual agency through sonic prosthesis. In social EDM settings, the heightened potential for entrainment to both the music and other co-participants, together with the established role of entrainment in facilitating social bonding, suggests that the timbral gestures of EDM could be key to fostering intersubjectivity among those present. Considering this, the imaginative embodiment of timbral gestures is shown to constitute a necessary first step towards the communal rationalisation of the EDM experience and the social emergence of musical meaning.

The theoretical position that time principally enters mental life through the portal of perceptual organization and particularly through the formation of groups is introduced. The key concept of Gestalt, that the whole is other than the sum of the parts, is illustrated through both spatial and temporal examples. Particular emphasis is placed on the emergent properties of groups experienced in music.

All animal species seem to have some sort of communication system that is (largely or completely) innate. What is the nature of such systems? We will only have space to look at a few examples, which will show that some species use very complex systems. We can then ask, assuming that the human language capacity consists of several cognitive submodules, whether it is the case that some of those modules are shared with the innate communication capacities of other species. As we have seen, in recent years Chomsky has argued that the language capacity that is uniquely human (being specific to the domain of language) is the ability to form recursive structure. This has led to research to find out whether other animal species can also “handle” recursive patterns either in their communication systems or in other cognitive systems.

The study of individuals with hippocampal damage and amnesia provides a compelling opportunity to directly test the role of declarative memory to communication and language. Over the past two decades, we have documented disruptions in discourse and conversation as well as in more basic aspects of language in individuals with hippocampal amnesia including at the word, phrase, and sentence level across offline and online language processing tasks. This work highlights the critical contribution of hippocampal-dependent memory to language and communication and suggests that hippocampal damage or dysfunction is a risk factor for a range of language and communicative disruptions even in the absence of frank disorders of amnesia or aphasia. This work also raises questions about the reality and utility of the historical distinction between communication and language in defining cognitive-communication disorders as individuals with isolated memory impairments show deficits that cut across both communication and language.

When thinking about emotional expressions, most would probably envision facial expressions (e.g., smiling, scowling) or vocalizations (e.g., crying, laughter). Here we focus on the emotional postures and movements of the body – an important, but fairly understudied, signal for emotion perception. During emotional episodes, humans often position and move their bodies in consistent ways that may (or may not) signal their underlying feelings and future actions. We briefly review the historical antecedents of this literature, as well as current knowledge on the neural processing, developmental trajectory, and cultural differences in the emotional perception of body language. We continue by examining the role of the body as a contextualizing agent for disambiguating facial expressions, as well as their inverse relationship – from faces to bodies. Future directions and speculations about how this emerging field may evolve are discussed.

With their shallow reliefs, depictions of contorted movement, and a historically inflected formal style, first century BCE and CE Neo-Attic reliefs are distinct among Greek and Roman relief sculpture. Primarily made for an elite Roman audience, the reliefs invoke stylistic techniques from different periods of Greek art and creatively combine figural types taken from earlier objects. The scenes are also characterized by a sense of spacelessness, established by the representation of figures, objects, and landscapes in shallow relief and by the frequent distorted play with depth and space. By considering a select number of examples, this chapter argues that the reliefs’ formal elements work together to evoke multiple temporalities and spaces, so that the distinct time and space created by and in these reliefs allowed them to become powerful sites of contact. In connecting their audience with an idealized past that takes place in a generic space, the reliefs offered viewers the opportunity not only to engage visually with the past temporalities of Archaic and Classical Greece, but also to become immersed in them by sharing the same space as the stylized figures, who could slip from their timeless and spaceless background to the Roman world in which they were displayed.