Sperber, Dan;
Wilson, Deirdre;
(2025)
Rethinking Ostensive Communication in an Evolutionary, Comparative, and Developmental Perspective.
Psychological Review
10.1037/rev0000565.
(In press).
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Abstract
Ostensive communication (Sperber & Wilson, 1986/1995) involves both an informative and a communicative intention: The communicator draws attention not only to the information she intends to convey but also to her intention to convey it. This elicits an expectation of relevance in addressees that guides them in identifying the information communicated. This notion of ostensive communication has been influential in pragmatics, developmental psychology, and comparative psychology but also raises many questions. In the light of much relevant research, elaboration, and criticism over the years, we put forward a revised, broadened, more explicit, and more explanatory account of ostensive communication and of the role played in it by cognitive expectations of relevance and social expectations of cooperativeness. We distinguish two forms of ostension: In basic ostension, communicators give evidence of the information they intend to communicate, and in mentalistic communication, they give evidence of their intention to communicate that information. We interpret relevant comparative psychology findings (such as Go´mez, 1996) as suggesting that a basic, nonmentalistic form of ostension may have evolved in great apes as a solution to the problems and opportunities presented by intentional communication. We discuss Csibra and Gergely’s (2009) “natural pedagogy theory” claim that ostension is specifically adapted for the transmission of general knowledge to children. Correcting earlier pragmatic theories inspired by Grice (1989) including our own, we argue that typical verbal communication makes use of both basic and mentalistic ostension.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Rethinking Ostensive Communication in an Evolutionary, Comparative, and Developmental Perspective |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1037/rev0000565 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000565 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0). This license permits copying and redistributing the work in any medium or format for noncommercial use provided the original authors and source are credited and a link to the license is included in attribution. No derivative works are permitted under this license. |
| Keywords: | Social Sciences, Psychology, Psychology, Multidisciplinary, communication, comparative and developmental psychology, evolution, mentalizing, relevance theory, RATIONAL IMITATION, PAN-PANISCUS, GREAT APES, TOP-DOWN, RELEVANCE, INFANTS, REPRESENTATION, COOPERATION, MECHANISMS, CHIMPANZEE |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Linguistics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211547 |
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