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, they give evidence of their intention to communicate that information. We interpret relevant comparative psychology findings (such as Gómez, 1996) as suggesting that a basic, nonmentalistic form of ostension may have evolved in great apes as a solution to the problems and opportunities presented by intentional communication. We discuss Csibra and Gergely's (2009) "natural pedagogy theory" claim that ostension is specifically adapted for the transmission of general knowledge to children. Correcting earlier pragmatic theories inspired by Grice (1989) including our own, we argue that typical verbal communication makes use of both basic and mentalistic ostension. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Sperber et al. (Mon,) studied this question.