Ostensive gestures come first: Their role in the beginning of shared reference

In developmental psychology pointing gestures are widely accepted as the gesture that par excellence allows shared reference (Cyrulnik, 2002; Liszkowski, Carpenter, Striano, & Tomasello, 2006), and as the basic form of gestural reference (Leavens, Hopkins & Bard, 2008; Pika, 2008). However,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rodríguez Garrido, María Cintia, Moreno Núñez, Ana Rocío, Basilio, Marisol, Sosa, Noelia
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/705069
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/705069
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.09.005
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ostensive gestures
Pointing gestures
Shared reference
Object uses
Early Semiotic development
Psicología
Descripción
Sumario:In developmental psychology pointing gestures are widely accepted as the gesture that par excellence allows shared reference (Cyrulnik, 2002; Liszkowski, Carpenter, Striano, & Tomasello, 2006), and as the basic form of gestural reference (Leavens, Hopkins & Bard, 2008; Pika, 2008). However, in semiotics, it is ostensive gestures that are considered to be the first instance of active signification, that is, gestures where an object occupies a prominent place as an instrument of communication (Eco, 1976). In this paper, coming from the pragmatics of the object perspective (Rodríguez & Moro, 1998), we argue that it is not pointing but ostensive gestures that come first. Specifically, we argue that: (1) osten- sive gestures are gestures; (2) a developmental understanding of gestures suggests that children understand and produce ostensive gestures before pointing gestures, and adults produce ostensive gestures with objects in a shared space with the child at a very early age long before pointing gestures; (3) a theoretical and pragmatic conceptualization of objects beyond their “physical” level is required. Objects are cultural products with public func- tions; as a consequence, objects are also powerful instruments of communication between people, especially during the first years of life, and not simply the setting that surrounds the communicative event. Finally, we discuss the implications of these notions for devel- opmental psychology, going beyond the declarative and imperative functions. We discuss three new functions of ostensive gestures: (1) for oneself with an exploratory and/or con- templative function, (2) private with a self-regulatory function in order to solve a problem, and (3) to another with an interrogative function