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Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 15 Nov 2021

Taken: 14 Nov 2021

10 favorites     9 comments    53 visits

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A Natural History of Human Thinking •
Michael Tomasello •
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Communication

Communication
Beyond the pointing gesture, the second form of “natural” communication that humans employ is spontaneously generated, nonconventional iconic gestures or pantomime. These gestures are used to direct the imagination of others to nonpresent entities, actions, or situations. Iconic gestures go beyond simply directing attention to situations deictically, as a pointing, by actually symbolizing an entity, action or situation in an external icon. Iconic gestures are “natural” because they employ normally effective intentional actions, just in a special way. The recipient can, on the basis of observing them, imagine the real actions or objects the communicator is pantomiming, and then, in the context of their common ground, make the appropriate inference to his communicative intention. Examples of informative uses of iconic gestures would be things like warning of a nearby snake by moving one’s hand in a slithering motion, telling of a deer at the waterhole by miming antlers on one’s own head (or the sound of his vocalization), or identifying the whereabouts of a friend by pantomiming his swimming. What the appropriate common ground, such gestures communicate very effectively about all kinds of nonpresent situations. ~ Page 60

neira-Dan, Bergfex, Peter_Private_Box, micritter and 6 other people have particularly liked this photo

9 comments - The latest ones
 Dinesh
Dinesh club
A NATURAL HISTORY OF HUMAN THINKING
2 years ago.
 Rosalyn Hilborne
Rosalyn Hilborne club
A beautiful hand and gesture Dinesh.
2 years ago.
 J.Garcia
J.Garcia club
A beautiful and inviting hand, Dinesh
2 years ago.
 Janet Brien
Janet Brien club
This image is lovely and brings to mind the sculptural delicacy of Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam." Gestures are a most interesting thing, aren't they? They certainly can be spontaneous, though I do my best to stop myself whenever I do, as I find gestures to be annoying, especially when a person does it all the time, and with the intent to get more attention with all of the flapping about. Heh.
2 years ago.
Dinesh club has replied to Janet Brien club
(HERE ARE FEW LINES FROM THE AUTHOR)

Every humans use of spontaneous iconic gestures as symbols to direct one another’s attention and imagination to relevant situations now became, with modern humans conventionalized in the group. This meant not only that interpreting a gesture depended on some personal common ground between communicative partners in the moment, as before but also that is now depended on some cultural common ground about how we in this group expect others in the group to use and interpret this gesture. . . . Communicative conventions thus come to be governed by constitutive norms in the sense that if I do not use them in the conversational way, I am not in the game. As Wittgenstein (1955) argued so trenchantly, the criteria for conventional use are determined not by the individual but by the community of users. I can rebel, but to what effect? ~ Page 95 (A Natural History of thinking”) ~ Michael Tomasello

And thank you for reading
2 years ago.
 Beatrice Degan(MARS)
Beatrice Degan(MARS)
Superb image with a splendid message
2 years ago.
 micritter
micritter
A lovely, elegant hand.
2 years ago.
 Peter_Private_Box
Peter_Private_Box club
Hi Dinesh
A wonderful and interesting picture, which I like very much!
Very nice composition

Best Wishes, a nice week ahead, and stay safe!!
Peter
2 years ago.
 neira-Dan
neira-Dan club
beau High Key
2 years ago.

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