ABSTRACT
The earliest concrete and clear-cut expressions of reference to objects are, on the one hand, the characteristic bodily gesture of pointing and, ön the other, vocal utterances such as “da” or “ta.” It is our contention that these formations emerge together from a total organismic matrix and then gradually differentiate: in other words, the motoric activity and vocalizations culminating in (denotative) reference are assumed to be, initially, aspects of action patterns by means of which the child interacts pragmatically with his surrounding milieus.
