I don't believe that Peirce could have written the passage below if he had ever attended to a crying baby. The first scream at birth is a vehement rejection of being banished from the paradise in the womb. For the initial stages, yes and no -- approvals and denials -- are the infant's major assertions. For the first year, most of the infant's more complex communications are by gestures. They include pointing, gimme, and rejection as primary. Infants are able to learn simple sign language long before they utter their first words. See the books and articles by David McNeill for more about the importance of gestures as an essential component of language. It's a pity that Peirce didn't have any close friends or relatives who used signed languages. They are excellent examples of diagrammatic languages that can represent moving three-dimensional patterns. . John ------------------------------- "Probably it will not be doubted that every child in its mental development necessarily passes through a stage in which he has some ideas, but yet has never recognised that an idea may be erroneous; and a stage that every child necessarily passes through must have been formerly passed through by the race in its adult development."
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