Ape gestures and the origins of language

The authors believe that a comparison of the vocalizations and gestures of our nearest great ape relatives does indeed provide support for some kind of gestural origins hypothesis, but for somewhat different reasons than those traditionally invoked. Their proposal is that the fundamental reality of a communicative signal-what characterizes its nature most directly-is the social, cognitive, and learning processes that underlie it, and so ape gestures are fundamentally very different from ape vocalizations. Despite the fact that apes use their gestures to flexibly, intentionally, affect the behavior of others—and with attention to the attentional states of the audience—they still do not work like human gestures. The comparative study of the gestural communication of our closest living relatives has enabled the people to provide new support for the gestural origins of language hypothesis by focusing on the functional aspects of communication; learning, flexible use, adjustments for audience, and so forth.