Can rudiments of referential/ostensive communication be found in non-human primates?
A fundamental feature of human communication is the ability to refer to things without or beyond the use of coded systems such as language. In this paper I explore the possibility of tracing some origins of this ability &emdash; dubbed referential-ostensive communication &emdash; in non-human primates, notably apes. Early experiments by E. Menzel (1971) suggested that chimpanzees are capable of developing ways of transmitting information about the location of targets that appear to be rudimentary referential. Studies with hand-reared apes suggest that these referential behaviours may rely upon the monitoring and management of joint attention, in a similar (but not identical) way to human infants who start their communicative careers with pre-linguistic gestures. I will review recent conflicting experimental evidence about the extent to which apes possess some of the abilities necessary for referential-ostensive communication. I will suggest that this evidence justifies attributing to a
