Exorcising Grice’s ghost: an empirical approach to studying intentional communication in animals

Biological Reviews 3 (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Language’s intentional nature has been highlighted as a crucial feature distinguishing it from other communication systems. Specifically, language is often thought to depend on highly structured intentional action and mutual mindreading by a communicator and recipient. Whilst similar abilities in animals can shed light on the evolution of intentionality, they remain challenging to detect unambiguously. We revisit animal intentional communication and suggest that progress in identifying analogous capacities has been complicated by (i) the assumption that intentional (that is, voluntary) production of communicative acts requires mental-state attribution, and (ii) variation in approaches investigating communication across sensory modalities. To move forward, we argue that a framework fusing research across modalities and species is required. We structure intentional communication into a series of requirements, each of which can be operationalised, investigated empirically, and must be met for purposive, intentionally communicative acts to be demonstrated. Our unified approach helps elucidate the distribution of animal intentional communication and subsequently serves to clarify what is meant by attributions of intentional communication in animals and humans.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 102,074

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Cognitive Implications of Intentional Communication: A Multifaceted Mirror.David A. Leavens - 2018 - In Laura Desirèe Di Paolo, Fabio Di Vincenzo & Francesca De Petrillo (eds.), Evolution of Primate Social Cognition. Springer Verlag. pp. 59-77.
A modal logic of intentional communication.Marco Colombetti - 1999 - Mathematical Social Sciences 38:171-196.
Attention and the evolution of intentional communication.Ingar Brinck - 2000 - Pragmatics and Cognition 9 (2):259-277.

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-08-11

Downloads
145 (#156,987)

6 months
13 (#279,648)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Markus Wild
Université de Fribourg
Richard Moore
University of Warwick

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references