{"id":7327,"date":"2024-02-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=7327"},"modified":"2024-01-05T20:44:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T20:44:15","slug":"looking-at-michael-tomasellos-book-2014-a-natural-history-of-human-thinking-part-16-of-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=7327","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Michael Tomasello&#8217;s Book (2014) &#8220;A Natural History of Human Thinking&#8221; (Part 16 of 22)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>0322 Notably,&nbsp;<em>the prior blog&#8217;s semiotic picture of hominin communication<\/em>&nbsp;testifies to&nbsp;<em>Saussure&#8217;s definition of language as two related systems of differences, &#8220;parole&#8221; and &#8220;langue&#8221;<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;In hand talk, the relation is motivated, because hand-talk manifests icons and indexes.&nbsp;&nbsp;In speech-alone talk, the relation is arbitrary, because speech-alone talk is purely symbolic.&nbsp;&nbsp;Spoken words cannot picture or point to anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is a picture for&nbsp;<em>hominin hand-talk<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Slide46-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Slide46-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Slide46-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Slide46-1-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0323 What is wrong with this picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where is&nbsp;<em>the adaptation of joint attention<sub>2a<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;and all that it entails?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like a bad movie, a crucial element is left on the cutting room floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0324 Tomasello identifies&nbsp;<em>some of the consequences of hominin hand-talk<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0325 To start,&nbsp;<em>the motive to inform<\/em>&nbsp;must be true.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hand-talk gestures request, inform and share without falsehood or deception.&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8220;Accurate&#8221; and &#8220;honest&#8221; are not ideated as virtues in hand-talk, because&nbsp;<em>the referents of these explicit abstractions<\/em>&nbsp;cannot be pictured or pointed to.&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8220;Accurate&#8221; and &#8220;honest&#8221; cannot be named.&nbsp;&nbsp;But, surely hominins recognize accuracy and honesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next,&nbsp;<em>the gesture-word<\/em>&nbsp;must be timely.&nbsp;&nbsp;It must be relevant.&nbsp;&nbsp;Eye-contact may be necessary.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>The sclera of the eye for humans<\/em>&nbsp;is white, allowing for&nbsp;<em>easy determination of the direction of gaze<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>The palms of the hands<\/em>&nbsp;lack pigment, enhancing visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, intuitions about timely, relevant word-gestures are built into the hominin body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0326 Next, proto-language offers&nbsp;<em>clues that assist in decoding an interventional sign-object<\/em>&nbsp;(SO<sub>i<\/sub>)&nbsp;<em>into a specifying sign-vehicle<\/em>&nbsp;(SV<sub>s<\/sub>).&nbsp;&nbsp;For example, precursor gestures may differentiate intents to request, inform and share.&nbsp;&nbsp;Special gestures may mark time, distance, or direction with respect to the sun.&nbsp;&nbsp;These clues will later be incorporated into a fully grammatical hand-talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next,&nbsp;<em>manual-brachial gestures within each team<\/em>&nbsp;become more and more distinct, depending on the routinization of the team activities over time.&nbsp;&nbsp;As&nbsp;<em>habitual voluntary manual-brachial gestures<\/em>&nbsp;become more distinct over generations,&nbsp;<em>the proto-language of each team<\/em>&nbsp;approaches&nbsp;<em>Saussure&#8217;s definition of language<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>A closed and finite system of differences<\/em>&nbsp;may also be called&nbsp;<em>a<\/em>&nbsp;<em>symbolic order<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Symbolic operations may evolve.&nbsp;&nbsp;Today, we call these symbolic operations, &#8220;grammar&#8221;.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0327 Let me say that again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First,&nbsp;<em>hand-talk<\/em>&nbsp;evolves in&nbsp;<em>the milieu of teams in the Era of Joint Intentionality<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hand-talk is accurate, honest, timely and relevant.&nbsp;&nbsp;The specifying sign-vehicle (SV<sub>s<\/sub>) yields a sensible sign-object (SO<sub>s<\/sub>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second,&nbsp;<em>the specifying sign<\/em>&nbsp;flourishes when reference is guaranteed by&nbsp;<em>the iconic and indexal sign-qualities of hand-talk<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third,&nbsp;<em>each team&#8217;s<\/em>&nbsp;<em>hand-talk system of differences<\/em>&nbsp;slowly becomes more and more linguistic as&nbsp;<em>word-gestures<\/em>&nbsp;become more and more distinct.&nbsp;&nbsp;Grammar exploits the emergence of a symbolic order (that is, a system of differences).&nbsp;&nbsp;Grammar consists in symbolic operations among gestural-words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0328 So concludes my examination&nbsp;<em>the era of joint intentionality<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>0322 Notably,&nbsp;the prior blog&#8217;s semiotic picture of hominin communication&nbsp;testifies to&nbsp;Saussure&#8217;s definition of language as two related systems of differences, &#8220;parole&#8221; and &#8220;langue&#8221;.&nbsp;&nbsp;In hand talk, the relation is motivated, because hand-talk manifests icons and indexes.&nbsp;&nbsp;In speech-alone talk, the relation is arbitrary, because speech-alone talk is purely symbolic.&nbsp;&nbsp;Spoken words cannot picture or point to anything. Here is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Looking at Michael Tomasello&#039;s Book (2014) &quot;A Natural History of Human Thinking&quot; (Part 16 of 22) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=7327\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Michael Tomasello&#039;s Book (2014) &quot;A Natural History of Human Thinking&quot; (Part 16 of 22) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0322 Notably,&nbsp;the prior blog&#8217;s semiotic picture of hominin communication&nbsp;testifies to&nbsp;Saussure&#8217;s definition of language as two related systems of differences, &#8220;parole&#8221; and &#8220;langue&#8221;.&nbsp;&nbsp;In hand talk, the relation is motivated, because hand-talk manifests icons and indexes.&nbsp;&nbsp;In speech-alone talk, the relation is arbitrary, because speech-alone talk is purely symbolic.&nbsp;&nbsp;Spoken words cannot picture or point to anything. 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