ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a theoretical framework that addresses different sublevels of human communication and respective levels of social–cognitive understanding that might be involved in developmentally simpler forms of human communication. It reviews the literature on infant pointing to evaluate current hypotheses and empirical evidence. Intentional communication requires a sender who chooses to execute a behavior with the goal of affecting a recipient somehow. The communicative goal of affecting a recipient’s body involves simply a manipulation of another’s body from afar, for example as a tool, like activating a robot. A somewhat intermediate position assumes that imperative pointing can be interpreted on a lean account, and declarative pointing on a rich account. Developmentally, Camaioni hypothesized imperative pointing to emerge shortly before declarative pointing. Different theoretical positions and the lack of unequivocal empirical evidence have given rise to different interpretations of infant pointing when it has just emerged.
