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We examine the embodiment of one foundational aspect of human cognition, language, through its bodily association with the gestures that accompany its expression in speech. Gesture is a universal feature of human communication. Gestures are produced by all speakers in every culture (although the extent and typology of gesturing may differ). They are tightly timed with speech (McNeill, 1992). Gestures convey important communicative information to the listener, but even blind speakers gesture while talking to blind listeners (Iverson and Goldin-Meadow, 1998), so the mutual co-occurrence of speech and gesture reflects a deep association between the two modes that transcends the intentions of the speaker to communicate. Indeed, we believe that this linkage of the vocal expression of language and the arm movements produced with it are a manifestation of the embodiment of thought: that human mental …