The case for articulatory gestures – not sounds – as the physical embodiment of speech signs

The term articulatory gestures is common among linguists, amounting to a kind of analogy with the manual gestures of sign language. This paper takes the term seriously, rejecting the notion that sounds are the physical embodiment of the linguistic sign. Making the case for the gesture as a legitimate type of sign, it shows how vocal movements are far more convincing candidates for the signifiers of human language when viewed from several different semiotic perspectives, including physiology, physics, psychology, and communication theory.