![]() ![]() 2005)-if the gestural repertoire is shared across modern ape species despite these variations, this strengthens the hypothesis that modern ape gestural repertoires originated in a shared universal ancestral repertoire. Large similarities in the gestural repertoire have been observed in apes with very different ecologies, social structures, and cognitive skills (Pika et al. As a result, it has been suggested that there is a large ‘ape-typical’ repertoire of gesture types (Hobaiter and Byrne 2011a, b Cartmill et al. 2017), and, in some cases, in the meanings for which great apes use these gestures (Graham et al. Recent comparative studies across great ape species have revealed that there is substantial overlap in both the repertoires of available gesture types (Hobaiter and Byrne 2011a, b, and see Byrne et al. As a result, it has been argued that human language may have originated in the gestural domain (Hewes et al. Current studies suggest that great ape gesture is the only nonhuman system of communication in which, like language, a repertoire of signals is used intentionally to communicate everyday goals. 2009 Cartmill and Byrne 2010 Hobaiter and Byrne 2011a, b Roberts et al. 2017), with widespread evidence across all species that apes deploy these both flexibly and intentionally (e.g. Non-human great apes (hereafter great apes) have large species repertoires of over 60 different gesture types (Hobaiter and Byrne 2011a, b Byrne et al. 2013) however, this remains limited to an individual signal used in a highly specified way. One exception is the evidence for the intentional use of a specific alarm call by chimpanzees (Crockford et al. Unlike human language, nonhuman vocal communication largely fits into this second-nonintentional category (Cheney and Seyfarth 1990 Marler 1961 Seyfarth and Cheney 2002). Early studies of human communicative development distinguished intentional (illocutory) signals, from nonintentional (perlocutory) signals, in which a signal may have an effect on a recipient but without any evidence that the signaller intended this effect (Bates et al. Humans also produce non-intentional signals-the yelp when we stub our toe clearly conveys the information that we are in pain to anyone else in the room, but the signaller did not yelp with an intention to communicate this information. In humans, however, language (whether spoken or signed) appears to represent a fundamentally distinct system of communication, with its flexible production and recursive properties allowing extraordinary potential for the expression of a near-infinite range of meanings, intentionally addressed towards highly specific audiences. Great apes of all species-human and nonhuman-communicate using a combination of different types of signals: vocalizations, gestures, facial expressions, body postures, and even cues from colour, such as blushing (deJong 1999), or odour (Singh and Bronstad 2001 Hepper and Wells 2010) can transmit information between individuals. We aim to show that applying this methodology to the study of human infant gesture is not only a worthwhile endeavour that can tell us more about the development of human communication, but also supplement what we know about the similarities and differences to the communication systems of other apes. In this paper we make a first attempt at classifying the natural gestural repertoire of human infants in their second year of life with the same methodology that has been applied to other ape species. Like chimpanzees, they used them both singly, and in sequences, and employed individual gestures flexibly towards different goals. Children employed 52 distinct gestures, 46 (89%) of which are present in the chimpanzee repertoire. We recorded ( n = 13) children’s gestures in a natural setting with peers and caregivers in Germany and Uganda. This paper applies the methodology commonly used in the study of nonhuman ape gestures to the gestural communication of human children in their second year of life. The gestural repertoires of nonhuman ape species have been carefully studied and described with regard to their form and function-but similar approaches are much rarer in the study of human gestures. Some research firmly emphasises the differences between human gestures and those of other apes however, the question about whether there are any commonalities is rarely investigated, and has mostly been confined to pointing gestures. In adult humans, gestures are thought to be a window into the thought processes accompanying language, and sign languages are equal to spoken language with all of its features. When we compare human gestures to those of other apes, it looks at first like there is nothing much to compare at all. ![]()
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