Abstract: This paper introduces a gestural theory for the origin of syntax, certainly one of the most difficult questions in the study of language origins.This proposal recognizes both visible and vocal gestures as having an evolutonary role but suggests the visible gestures played a special role in the emergence of syntax. The fundamental kernel of syntax is seen as inherent in visible gestural communication and available for extension by means of ordinary evolutionary process. In manual gesturing, a hand (as agent) moves (what verbs imply) and may act on another part of the body (as patient). It is proposed, then, that the formation of a manual gesture entails a preadaptive elementy syntax. As gesture becomes linguistic sign, it carries with it the seed of the basic syntactic relationship–it refers and also relates. The social behavior of the hominids could have supplied conditions that enhanced the fitness of individuals and groups with increasingly sophisticated communication systems. The embryo sentencess already present in gestural communication might then have constituted preadaptive behaviors available for extension into increasingly complex syntactic structures.