Book contents
- Pointing
- Pointing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction to Pointing:
- Part One Culture and Development
- 1 Pointing at, Talking about, and Looking Away:
- 2 The Design of Pointing
- 3 Development of Pointing in Toddlers:
- 4 Attention Management by Deictic Gestures and Demonstratives:
- 5 Pointing to Dinner Participants in Deaf and Hearing Children’s and Adults’ Signing and Gesturing
- 6 The Cultural Nature of Early Social Communication
- 7 Pointing at Local Knowledge:
- 8 The Role of Infant Pointing in Child-Led Caregiving:
- 9 How Infants Learn to Follow Attention from Gaze-Direction and Pointing Gestures
- 10 Touch, Pointing and Mind-Reading
- 11 Socially Signaling Robotics:
- 12 Developmental Significance of the Human Pointing Gesture
- Part Two Evolutionary Perspectives
- Index
- References
2 - The Design of Pointing
from Part One - Culture and Development
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 June 2026
Book contents
- Pointing
- Pointing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction to Pointing:
- Part One Culture and Development
- 1 Pointing at, Talking about, and Looking Away:
- 2 The Design of Pointing
- 3 Development of Pointing in Toddlers:
- 4 Attention Management by Deictic Gestures and Demonstratives:
- 5 Pointing to Dinner Participants in Deaf and Hearing Children’s and Adults’ Signing and Gesturing
- 6 The Cultural Nature of Early Social Communication
- 7 Pointing at Local Knowledge:
- 8 The Role of Infant Pointing in Child-Led Caregiving:
- 9 How Infants Learn to Follow Attention from Gaze-Direction and Pointing Gestures
- 10 Touch, Pointing and Mind-Reading
- 11 Socially Signaling Robotics:
- 12 Developmental Significance of the Human Pointing Gesture
- Part Two Evolutionary Perspectives
- Index
- References
Summary
Previous discussions of pointing have largely evaded a central question: How is an act of pointing recognized as communicative in the first place? Here it is argued – building on classic and recent work in pragmatics – that pointing is designed to deviate minimally from mere attending. This basic design is found throughout the diverse universe of human pointing, from the most familiar, conventional forms to the most exotic and ad hoc, and may even extend to cases of pointing in nonhuman animals. Further, the chapter shows that this framework lights up promising avenues for further research on the interpretation of pointing, as well as on the emergence of pointing on developmental, cultural, and evolutionary timescales.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- PointingCulture, Development, and Evolution, pp. 37 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
References
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