![]() Unpeeling the layers can then help us see the different contributions of the distinct systems that underlie the peculiarities of human communication. But in this paper we suggest that viewing language as embedded in its full pragmatic, interactive and multi-modal context transforms this stratificational perspective. A wide range of scholars of different perspectives seem to subscribe to such a general view (e.g. In this paper, we take the view that human communication is evolutionarily stratified, composed of layers of abilities of different types and different antiquity. The combination is extraordinary, because the variation within an unusually genetically homogeneous species excludes a fully biological explanation. Human communication is unusual in the animal world on at least two principal counts: it has an unrivalled complexity and expressivity on the one hand, and an unparalleled inter-group variation on the other. It also offers possibilities for reconciling the ‘gesture-first hypothesis’ with that of gesture and speech having evolved together, hand in hand-or hand in mouth, rather-as one system. This perspective helps us to appreciate the different roles that the different modalities play in human communication, as well as how they function as one integrated system despite their different roles and origins. If this larger perspective takes central focus, then it becomes apparent that human communication has a layered structure, where the layers may be plausibly assigned different phylogenetic and evolutionary origins-especially in the light of recent thoughts on the emergence of voluntary breathing and spoken language. But language normally occurs embedded within an interactional exchange of multi-modal signals. One reason for the apparent gulf between animal and human communication systems is that the focus has been on the presence or the absence of language as a complex expressive system built on speech.
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