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Exorcising Grice’s ghost : an empirical approach to studying intentional communication in animals
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(2017) Exorcising Grice’s ghost : an empirical approach to studying intentional communication in animals. Biological Reviews, 92 (3). pp. 1427-1433. doi:10.1111/brv.12289 ISSN 1464-7931.
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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12289
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.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | Q Science > QL Zoology | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Animal communication, Intentionality (Philosophy), Sound production by animals, Grice, H. P. (H. Paul) | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Biological Reviews | ||||||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1464-7931 | ||||||||
Official Date: | August 2017 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 92 | ||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1427-1433 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/brv.12289 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 30 June 2016 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 2 August 2017 | ||||||||
Funder: | Universität Zürich | ||||||||
Adapted As: | |||||||||
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