ABSTRACT
Once sensorimotor control is attained, infants enter a prolonged period of learning how to communicate with language involving the integration of a complex group of competencies and new levels of recognition. The development of a sense of ownership of one’s own thoughts involves more than simply distinguishing between self-and non-self-directed activities. Rather, there is a larger need to gain acknowledgment-to be recognized as someone who possesses beliefs and intentions and the capacity to communicate them through symbols that impart meaning and bestow sense. As described before, communication through language is rooted in gestures that combine posture and movement in temporally linked repertoires of action. Sign languages invented by children never previously exposed to spoken language use symbols that integrate manner and path of movement into gestures. A level of combinatorial power comparable to complex linguistic systems is attained with this technique (Senghas, Kita, & Özyürek, 2004). Syntax is essential to secure the precision with which propositions about the world can be stated, but it does not reduce the ambiguity involved in establishing the boundaries of meaning, intentionality, and identity that are often transgressed.
