Thom Scott-Phillips is an evolutionary cognitive scientist, and Speaking Our Minds (2015) makes a compact claim: for language to arise, a certain kind of communication had to exist already. That kind is ostensive-inferential communication.
Two kinds of communication
The code model. Signals and meanings are linked in advance. A bee dance or an alarm call works this way: the sender emits a signal, and the receiver decodes it.
Ostensive-inferential. The sender shows not only what she wants to convey but that she is trying to convey something. The receiver infers her intention from that evidence and the context. The form of the signal need not be fixed. Tilting a coffee cup to tell a waiter you want a refill is an example (pp. 87–89).
How the book proceeds
| Chapter | Claim |
|---|---|
| 2 | There are three routes to new signals: ritualization, sensory manipulation, and the direct route. Combinatorial signals are rare in nature and become widely possible only through the direct (ostensive) route |
| 3 | The cognition behind ostensive communication is the maximizing of relevance and the reading of others’ minds (recursive mindreading) |
| 4 | Great-ape communication is intentional but not ostensive. Why humans have it is traced to the “social brain” |
| 5 (opening) | Language evolved culturally on top of ostensive-inferential communication (language in general versus individual languages) |
This feature
| Article | Content |
|---|---|
| ① (this one) | Overview |
| ② | Plain explanation: Mary and the wild strawberries |
| ③ | In detail: from code to ostension (chapter 2) |
| ④ | In detail: relevance and mindreading (chapter 3) |
| ⑤ | In detail: ape comparison and the social brain (chapter 4, opening of 5) |
Note
This feature is ToL’s summary of the relevant passages of the Japanese edition. For the experiments and cases in detail, consult the book.