The cognitive foundations of ostensive-inferential communication

This chapter is set against the background of one of the most important pragmatic models of language: the ostensive-inferential model advanced by Sperber and Wilson (1986) with Relevance Theory (RT). According to RT, the speaker provides just evidence (e.g., an utterance) of his intention to convey a certain meaning and the listener comprehends the speaker's meaning by producing a series of inferences that are governed by that evidence. From this view, communication involves the expression and recognition of intentions, which are largely based on cognitive systems relating to the functioning of the so-called "social brain". Discussing some empirical results from cognitive ethology, comparative psychology and neuroscience, this contribution brings evidence in favour of the idea that some cognitive systems underlying the communicative use of language are also present in non-human animals. This analysis contributes to considering the study of social cognition in non-human animals as crucial for the construction of pragmatic models of human language largely inspired by the theory of evolution.