“Great apes do not create new communicative functions by combining
their gestures, their vocalizations, or their gestures and
vocalizations together [ ]. But humans do, including young children
from the earliest stages of their communicative development, and
including even children exposed to no conventional language, vocal or
signed, at all [ ]” (p. 66).
“With gesture combinations we now also have the possibility of
beginning down the path to the subject-predicate organization
characteristic of full propositions” (p. 67).
“The overall picture is thus that early humans used their pointing
and iconic gestures, both singly and in combination, to communicate
much more richly and powerfully than did their primate cousins.” He
says none of this required language; such communication is the
prerequisite of becoming a language user (p. 68).
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