Pointing at stuff is something every human understands.
A new study shows that for babies, pointing bridges the gap between communication and language. Could pointing have kickstarted language? And do any other animals do it?
Linguist Daniel Midgley gets to the point on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Show notes
Ukraine: no ‘the’.
http://time.com/12597/the-ukraine-or-ukraine/
But why not?
http://mentalfloss.com/article/32098/why-did-ukraine-become-just-ukraine
The name comes from “u” + “krai” = on the borderlands
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Ukraine
Why do some country names have ‘the’?
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18233844
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine#.22Ukraine.22_versus_.22the_Ukraine.22
“Ukraine” is now more common than “the Ukraine” in books, in their various formulations.
What’s the difference between на and в, in Russian?
http://www.yearlyglot.com/differentiating-the-russian-prepositions-v-and-na/
Pointing is the first communicative gesture for human infants
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140224081117.htm
and it’s key for developing language.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229710000377
Pointing in apes and toddlers
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-gestures-human-speech-evolution-20130607,0,1312702.story#axzz2vRedHOEi
Wild chimps don’t point, but captive ones do.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2151757/
Elephants get pointing
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/science/elephants-get-the-point-of-pointing-study-shows.html?_r=1&
Ravens point, too.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111129112319.htm
They do it to focus the attention of others.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21222-ravens-use-gestures-to-grab-each-others-attention.html#.UxxVQtwjFRw
What’s the tie-in? Ravens hunt co-operatively with each other…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8388000/8388073.stm
…and with wolves.
http://aviannovice.hubpages.com/hub/The-Raven-and-the-Wolf-A-Study-in-Symbiosis
Ravens can also remember faces.
http://news.discovery.com/animals/ravens-remember-you-120419.htm
There won’t be a ‘guacapocalypse’.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/05/286197040/chipotle-says-theres-no-guacapocalypse-looming-after-all
–pocalypse
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=-pocalypse
