de+Waal

=Ape gestures and language evolution=

Amy S. Pollick and Frans B. M. de Waal
Hypothesis: "...we formulated a gestural flexibility hypothesis according to which the usage of gestures will be more flexible than that of facial/vocal displays...we predict that gestures will be less context-bound than other types of signals." (below Table 1 on the second page)

Discussion of Data Regarding Gestures: - "less closely tied to particular emotions, such as aggression or affiliation...possess a more adaptable function" - "evolutionarily younger, as shown in their presence in apes but not monkeys...likely under greater cortical control than facial/vocal signals."
 * "Recent research demonstrates te universal imporance of gesture to human congnitiver functioning, such as enhancced information transfer (39), lexical retrieval (40), and even the provision of a supplemental congnitive arena for thought (41) 8184
 * "This observation makes gesture a serious candidate modality to have acquired symbolic meaning in early hominins. As such, the present study supports the gestural origin hypothesis of language." (( I sort of understand this statement but I think it could use some clarification.)) i think they are just talking about speech, utterances used as language only after gestures were gaining expressability

- virtually absent outside Homindea (unlike the "scream" they discuss which serves a similar purpose across different primates) - "weaker correlations across contexts" (between species and between members of the same species) (ex: a "gentle touch" has different meaning in different contexts and is informed by other signals/behaviors) )
 * "Responsiveness" was defined as the proportion of total signals in a given category that elicited a response of any kind from the recipient to whom the signal was directed (responsiveness to Multimodal Signals, p. 9197)
 * Gestural Flexibility Hypothesis: brachio-manual gestures more flexible across contexts that facial expressions and vocalizations. (discussion, p. 8187)

-The seven primary behavioral contexts are affiliative, agonistic, food, groom, play, sex, and locomotion.

de Waal's conclusion to the behavioral context correlation mumbo jumbo in support of the gestural flexibility hypothesis: "//Gesture// // s seem less closely tied to part icular emotions, such as aggre ssio n or affil iation, henc e possess a more adaptable function. Gesture s are also evolution ar ily you nge r, as sho wn by their pre sen ce in ap es but not monkeys, and likely under greater cortical control than facial/ vocal signals (see Introduction). This observation makes gesture a serious candidate modality to have acquired symbolic meaningin ear ly hom ini ns. As such, the pre sen t stu dy su ppo rts the // //gestural origin hypothesis of language (4)//." -**8187**