Michael Tomasello

Communication Before Language

For obvious and very good reasons the study of human communication is dominated by the study of language. But from a psychological point of view, the basic structure of human communication – how it works pragmatically in terms of the intentions and inferences involved - is totally independent of language. The most important data here are acts of human communication that do not employ conventions. In situations in which language is for some reason not an option, people often produce spontaneous, non-conventionalized gestures, including most prominently pointing (deictic gestures) and pantomiming (iconic gestures). These gestures are universal among humans and unique to the species, and in human evolution they almost certainly preceded conventional communication, either signed or vocal. For prelinguistic infants to communicate effectively via pointing and pantomiming, they must already possess species-unique and very powerful skills and motivations for shared intentionality as pragmatic infrastructure. Conventional communication is then built on top of this infrastructure - or so I will argue.⠀
Michael Tomasello’s insights, gleaned from nearly three decades of research on great apes and children, help answer a fundamental question: How do humans differ from other great apes in cognition and sociality? Tomasello, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, has applied a comparative and developmental approach toward seeking answers. His studies on the psychological processes of social cognition, social learning, cooperation, and communication shed light on human uniqueness as well as on the cognitive abilities of our closest ape relatives. Tomasello, who is emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His Inaugural Article (IA) explores why human infants and great apes are capable of passing some tests of social cognition, whereas only older children can pass others.
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Abralin ao Vivo - Linguists Online is an initiative of Abralin - Associação Brasileira de Linguística in cooperation with several linguistics associations.

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Abralin ao Vivo - Linguists Online é um projeto da Abralin - Associação Brasileira de Linguística, com a colaboração de várias associações de linguística.

[jantelakoman]

The findings of second language acquisition that communicative input is essential dovetail nicely with this approach to language as a continuum with non-linguistic intention signaling

[alexanderherbertkurz]

1:03:45 What makes symbolic vocalization the natural next step? ... Ape vocalizations express emotions but are not referential ... possibly language originated with an attempt of gaining control over vocalizations to combine emotion with reference

[alexanderherbertkurz]

53:57 "Pointing even gives you a little bit of grammatical structure."

[ceesjanmol]

As to the experiments with chimps pointing, can the failure be related to an interspecies (lack of) connection? Clearly the contact between the researcher and the baby is of a different quality as between the other researcher and the chimp.. What happens if another chimp does the pointing?

[mateoli]

sim michael tomasello concordo com tudo

[alexanderherbertkurz]

1:00:09 Can intentionality be thought of as directing attention? ... intention ... attention ...

[IALatAmPro]

Gracias por compartir este poderoso conocimiento 📈🤯

[alexanderherbertkurz]

37:55 Declarative pointing is as early as imperative pointing ... not derivative ... similarly for informative pointing

[brentvangils]

Hasn't there been new research on dogs that suggests they do communicate with one another in specific contexts?The example used is that when dogs want to play with another dog, they will crouch down low in front of them, and if the other wishes to play, they too will crouch down.

[AngelicaMarquesdaCruz]

What is the name of the boy who introduces you?

[simonabbott]

Thank you for this (and thank you to Prof Tomasello too). I think the puzzle that is raised by human-dog cooperation is what the nature of our common ground is with dogs, if establishing common ground is distinctively human. What is the dog doing then?

[kamilypeixergatis]

Não encontrei a tradução para o português.

[ClaudioCunhaPediatra]

Muito bacana esta aula. Obrigado. è muito importante percebermos a necessidade de observação do comportamento psicomotor da crinça e de seuaspectos comunicativos e da interação com o entorno. Do Ato ao pensamento. Do gesto à palavra (H. Wallon)

[alexanderherbertkurz]

1:08:03 A question about human-dog communication. "Dogs do not do this with one another"

[ClaudioCunhaPediatra]

A intencionalidade está quando existe a construção e a percepção de sí (subjetiva e somatognosica) e do outro como ser intencional, bem como do objeto, propiciando a atenção de sentidos e significados e o principal: o descentramento da ação. PSICMOTRICIDADE