Key Takeaways
1. Human Communication Relies on a Foundation Beyond Language
What we call meaning must be connected with the primitive language of gestures.
Beyond the Code. Human communication is not solely about language; it heavily relies on non-linguistic elements like shared experiences and intentions. Even with a complex code, successful communication requires a foundation of mutual understanding and shared context.
Limitations of Language-Centric View. Focusing solely on language overlooks the crucial role of non-verbal cues and shared knowledge. Consider:
- Expressions like "it," "she," or "they" require contextual understanding.
- Conversational exchanges often rely on unspoken assumptions and inferences.
The Primacy of Uncoded Communication. To understand the origins of human communication, we must first examine unconventionalized, uncoded forms like natural gestures. These gestures, though simple, reveal the underlying infrastructure that makes complex communication possible.
2. Intentionality Distinguishes Human and Animal Communication
Listeners acquire information from signalers who do not, in the human sense, intend to provide it.
Communicative Displays vs. Signals. Biologists define communication broadly, including unintentional displays. However, psychological communication requires intentional signals, where the communicator aims to influence the recipient.
The Communicator's Role. The key distinction lies in the communicator's intent. While recipients gather information from various sources, intentional communication involves a deliberate effort to influence the recipient's behavior or mental state.
Intentional Signals in Primates. Intentional signals are rare in the animal kingdom, possibly confined to primates or even great apes. These signals are often learned and used flexibly, adjusted for particular social goals and circumstances.
3. Shared Intentionality Underpins Cooperative Communication
[Shared] intentionality presupposes a background sense of the other as a candidate for cooperative agency . . . [which] is a necessary condition of all collective behavior and hence all conversation.
Beyond Individual Intentionality. Human communication is uniquely cooperative, built on a foundation of shared intentionality. This involves understanding others as cooperative agents and engaging in joint activities with shared goals.
Components of Shared Intentionality:
- Cognitive skills for creating joint intentions and attention
- Social motivations for helping and sharing
Shared Intentionality in Action. Shared intentionality is evident in collaborative activities, from simple tasks like taking a walk together to complex endeavors like constructing a tool jointly. This "we" intentionality shapes the structure and motivation of human communication.
4. Pointing and Pantomiming: The Primordial Gestures
There is an act of “directing attention to the size of people” or to their actions. . . . This shows how it was possible for the general concept of meaning to come about.
Two Basic Types of Human Gesture:
- Deictic gestures (pointing): Direct attention to something in the immediate environment
- Iconic gestures (pantomiming): Simulate an action, relation, or object to direct the recipient's imagination
From Referential to Social Intention. These gestures are intended to induce the recipient to infer the communicator's social intention. The recipient must discern why the communicator is directing attention or imagination in a particular way.
Pointing as a Foundation. Pointing, in particular, is a fundamental human gesture that embodies the complexities of cooperative communication. Its simplicity belies the rich social-cognitive processes involved.
5. Common Ground is Essential for Interpreting Gestures
What we call meaning must be connected with the primitive language of gestures.
Context is Key. The meaning of a gesture is not inherent in the gesture itself but is heavily dependent on context. However, "context" for humans means something very special.
Common Ground Defined. For humans, the communicative context is what is "relevant" to the social interaction, that is, what each participant sees as relevant and knows that the other sees as relevant as well. This shared, intersubjective context is what we may call common ground.
Types of Common Ground:
- Immediate perceptual environment (joint attention) vs. shared experiences from the past
- Top-down (shared goals) vs. bottom-up (shared sensory experiences)
- Generalized cultural knowledge vs. overtly acknowledged knowledge
6. Cooperative Motives Drive Human Communication
[Shared] intentionality presupposes a background sense of the other as a candidate for cooperative agency . . . [which] is a necessary condition of all collective behavior and hence all conversation.
Beyond Individualistic Motives. Human communication is driven by cooperative motives, including helping and sharing. This contrasts with the more individualistic motives seen in animal communication.
Three Basic Communicative Motives:
- Requesting: Getting others to do what one wants them to
- Informing: Helping others by providing useful information
- Sharing: Connecting with others by sharing emotions and attitudes
The Communicative Intention. Communicators signal their intention to communicate, indicating that they have a request, information, or attitude to share. This signal prompts the recipient to make relevance inferences and understand the communicator's social intention.
7. From Gestures to Language: A Gradual Transition
Language did not emerge from some kind of ratiocination.
Language as a Code. Conventional languages are codes, but linguistic communication relies heavily on uncoded communication and mental attunement. Establishing an explicit code requires some preexisting form of communication that is at least as rich as that code.
The Role of Natural Gestures. Human communication could not have originated with a code. Rather, it must have begun with unconventionalized, uncoded communication, and other forms of mental attunement, as foundational.
Pointing and Pantomiming. Excellent candidates for this role are humans’ natural gestures such as pointing and pantomiming. These gestures are simple and natural, but still they are used to communicate in very powerful, species-unique ways.
8. Grammar Emerges from Functional Needs
What we call meaning must be connected with the primitive language of gestures.
The Grammatical Dimension. The purpose for which one communicates determines how much and what kind of information needs to be "in" the communicative signal, and therefore, in a very general way, what kind of grammatical structuring is needed.
Three Levels of Grammatical Complexity:
- Simple syntax (grammar of requesting): Limited syntactic marking, focused on immediate needs
- Serious syntax (grammar of informing): Devices for marking participant roles and speech act functions
- Fancy syntax (grammar of sharing and narrative): Complex devices for relating events and tracking participants across time
Cultural-Historical Processes. These grammatical conventions are shaped by cultural-historical processes, with different linguistic communities developing unique ways of meeting functional demands.
9. Cultural Transmission Shapes Linguistic Diversity
What we call meaning must be connected with the primitive language of gestures.
The Role of Cultural Transmission. Human languages are not static entities but are constantly evolving through cultural transmission. This process involves both the inheritance of existing conventions and the creation of new ones.
Language Change Mechanisms:
- Automatization: Speakers reduce and simplify frequently used expressions
- Reanalysis: New learners reinterpret existing constructions, leading to grammatical shifts
- Analogy: Patterns spread to new contexts, creating new forms
The Dialectic of Evolution and Culture. The evolution of human communication involves a complex interplay between biological predispositions and cultural-historical processes. While our capacity for language is rooted in our biology, the specific forms and structures of languages are shaped by cultural transmission.
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FAQ
What’s Origins of Human Communication by Michael Tomasello about?
- Explores the evolution of communication: The book investigates how human communication evolved from primate gestures to complex language, focusing on the cognitive and social foundations of this transition.
- Emphasizes shared intentionality: Tomasello highlights the role of shared intentionality—joint attention, common ground, and cooperative motives—as the key evolutionary development distinguishing humans from other primates.
- Integrates research across disciplines: Drawing on studies of great apes, infants, and children, the book connects social cognition, cultural learning, and language development into a unified evolutionary and developmental framework.
Why should I read Origins of Human Communication by Michael Tomasello?
- Challenges traditional linguistic theories: The book overturns the Chomskian idea of innate language, proposing that communication evolved from cooperative social interaction and gestures.
- Bridges multiple scientific fields: Tomasello integrates cognitive science, linguistics, evolutionary anthropology, and developmental psychology for a comprehensive perspective.
- Offers empirical and theoretical insights: The book is grounded in Tomasello’s own research, providing a data-driven account of how language and communication emerged in humans.
What are the key takeaways of Origins of Human Communication by Michael Tomasello?
- Human communication evolved from gestures: Pointing and pantomiming were the first uniquely human communicative acts, rooted in shared intentionality.
- Cooperation is central: Communication is fundamentally a cooperative enterprise involving joint goals, mutual knowledge, and prosocial motives.
- Language is culturally constructed: Conventional languages and grammar arose culturally, building on the psychological infrastructure of natural gestures and shared intentionality.
What are the main stages in the evolution of human cooperative communication according to Tomasello?
- From ape gestures to human pointing: Great apes use intentional gestures mainly for requests, while humans evolved pointing and pantomiming as collaborative communicative acts.
- Emergence of shared intentionality: Recursive mindreading and joint attention enabled humans to form joint goals and common ground for cooperative communication.
- Development of communicative conventions: Natural gestures became conventionalized through social learning and imitation, leading to arbitrary linguistic signs and vocal language.
- Expansion of communicative motives: Human communication expanded from requesting to informing and sharing emotions, supported by reciprocity and cultural group selection.
How does Michael Tomasello define “shared intentionality” in Origins of Human Communication?
- Ability to share mental states: Shared intentionality is the capacity and motivation to share goals, attention, and knowledge with others.
- Foundation for cooperation: It enables joint actions and cooperative communication, allowing communicators to work together toward common goals.
- Evolutionary significance: Shared intentionality evolved in mutualistic collaboration, setting humans apart from other primates who lack this recursive mindreading and cooperative motivation.
How does Tomasello differentiate human communication from great ape communication?
- Gestural vs. vocal communication: Great apes rely on flexible, intentional gestures for individual requests, while their vocalizations are emotionally driven and genetically fixed.
- Lack of shared intentionality in apes: Apes do not form joint goals or shared attention, limiting their communication to individualistic requests rather than cooperative informing or sharing.
- Human uniqueness in cooperation: Humans evolved a psychological infrastructure for shared intentionality, enabling complex, cooperative communication not seen in apes.
What is the role of pointing and pantomiming in the evolution of language according to Tomasello?
- Pointing as attention-directing: Pointing evolved as a natural gesture to direct others’ attention in collaborative activities, serving as a foundational communicative act.
- Pantomiming as imagination-directing: Iconic gestures or pantomimes depict actions or objects, allowing communication about absent or displaced referents.
- Bridge to conventional language: These gestures provided the infrastructure for the development of arbitrary communicative conventions and vocal language.
How do infants develop cooperative communication according to Tomasello’s research?
- Pointing emerges around 12 months: Infants begin to point intentionally to direct others’ attention before acquiring language.
- Three communicative motives: Infants point to request help, inform others, and share emotions or attitudes, mirroring adult motives.
- Shared intentionality underpins development: The emergence of joint attention and common ground around 9-12 months enables infants to communicate cooperatively.
How do conventional communication and language arise from natural gestures in Tomasello’s view?
- Cultural learning and imitation: Humans use role reversal imitation to learn and share arbitrary communicative conventions.
- Piggybacking on natural gestures: Conventional languages evolved by building on meaningful gestures like pointing and pantomiming.
- Bidirectionality of signs: Linguistic conventions are mutually known devices, enabling complex, symbolic communication.
How does Tomasello describe the emergence of linguistic conventions and grammar?
- Conventionalization through social learning: Linguistic conventions arise culturally, often via a “drift to the arbitrary” as iconic gestures become arbitrary signs.
- Grammar as construction sets: Grammar consists of conventionalized patterns that structure multiunit utterances to meet communicative needs.
- Stepwise evolution of grammar: Tomasello proposes a progression from a grammar of requesting, to informing, to sharing/narrative, each with increasing syntactic complexity.
What evolutionary processes explain the emergence of human cooperative communication in Tomasello’s theory?
- Mutualism as a starting point: Cooperation evolved in mutualistic activities where helping others also benefited oneself.
- Reciprocity and reputation: Individuals helped others to build reputations for cooperation, encouraging indirect reciprocity.
- Cultural group selection: Sharing emotions and attitudes solidified group identity and norms, supporting the cultural evolution of communication.
What is the significance of the “Gricean communicative intention” in Tomasello’s account?
- Definition of Gricean intention: It is the communicator’s intention to make it mutually known that they want the recipient to recognize their communicative intention.
- Role in cooperative reasoning: This intention places the communicative act in the public space, activating social norms and mutual expectations.
- Evolutionary emergence: Tomasello argues it arose from recursive mindreading and cooperative motives, enabling relevance inferences and normativity in human communication.
Review Summary
Origins of Human Communication is highly praised for its convincing account of language evolution, emphasizing shared intentionality and cooperation as key factors. Readers appreciate Tomasello's empirical approach, accessible writing, and systematic arguments. The book challenges Chomsky's theories and offers insights into human uniqueness. Some reviewers note repetitiveness and dense content. Critics highlight potential gaps in addressing certain cognitive skills and opposing viewpoints. Overall, the book is considered a significant contribution to understanding human communication origins, earning mostly positive reviews for its originality and scientific rigor.
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