Shared semantics: Exploring the interface between human and chimpanzee gestural communication
Matthew Henderson, Patrick Georg Grosz, Kirsty Graham, Catherine Hobaiter, Pritty Patel-Grosz
February 2024 

Striking similarities across ape gestural repertoires suggest shared phylogenetic origins that likely provided a foundation for the emergence of language. We pilot a novel approach for exploring possible semantic universals across human and nonhuman ape species. In a forced choice task, n = 300 participants watched 10 chimpanzee gesture forms performed by a human and chose from responses that paralleled inferred meanings for chimpanzee gestures. Participants agreed on a single meaning for nine gesture forms; in six of these the agreed form meaning pair response(s) matched those established for chimpanzees. Such shared understanding suggests apes'(including humans') gesturing shares deep evolutionary origins.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/007723 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Mind & Language [http://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12500]
keywords:	gesture, primates, communication, manual modality, form-meaning mappings, pragmatics, super linguistics, semantics
previous versions:	v1 [November 2023]
Downloaded:	623 times

 

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