ABSTRACT
For both the Motor Theory of Speech Perception (Liberman & Mattingly, 1985; Mattingly & Liberman, 1988) and the Direct-Realist theory of speech perception (Fowler, 1986a,b; Fowler & Rosenblum, chapter 3 this volume) a proposed unit of motor organization—the gesture—is postulated as a unit in the speech perception process. In the brief space available to me here, I wish to consider the concept of the gesture as a production unit in a historical perspective and relate my conclusion to these two perception theories. My conclusion is that the concept of gesture is not yet adequately defined and that this is a serious problem for both of these theories.
