Broadcast Transmission, Signal Secrecy And Gestural Primacy Hypothesis

Abstract

In current literature, a number of standard lines of evidence reemerge in support of the hypothesis that the initial, “bootstrapping” stage of the evolution of language was gestural. However, one specific feature of gestural communication consistent with this hypothesis has been given surprisingly little attention. The visual modality makes gestural signals more secret than vocal signals (lack of broadcast transmission). The high relevance of secrecy is derived from the fundamental constraint on language evolution: the transfer of honest messages itself is a form of cooperation, and therefore not a naturally evolutionarily stable strategy. Consequently, greater secrecy of gestural communication constitutes a potentially important factor that should not fail to be represented in more comprehensive models of the emergence of protolanguage.