<p>I find it hard to imagine an example of communication which does not &quot;inform&quot;, and from the abstract of the book, I am not sure that Tomasello opposes those three purposes in general, and the purposes of &quot;informing&quot; and &quot;sharing&quot; in particular (but I could not access the book to check its text):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Requesting help in the immediate you-and-me and here-and-now, for example, required very little grammar, but informing and sharing required increasingly complex grammatical devices.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Examples of communication which are informing and sharing (without requesting) are easy to imagine, such as sharing/informing of a danger or of the location of a source of food.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-01-19T09:49:16.453Z
2024-01-19T09:49:16.453Z
J.y B.y
<p>In &quot;<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515207/origins-of-human-communication/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Origins of human communication</a>&quot; (self described by the author as &quot;an empirically based theory of the evolutionary origins of human communication that challenges the dominant Chomskian view&quot; by a &quot;leading expert on evolution and communication&quot;), Tomasello distinguishes 3 motives for communication:</p>
<ol>
<li>requesting,</li>
<li>informing and</li>
<li>sharing.</li>
</ol>
<p>What would be examples of communication only involving the sharing motive and what evolutionary benefits would this give to individuals or groups that engage in it?</p>
<p>Is there any work that expands on this question?
Tomasello himself does not answer the question, or I didn't get his point.</p>

<communication><evolutionary-psychology>
What are examples of evolutionary benefits of the sharing motive in Tomasello's theory on the origin of human communication?
heth
# What are examples of evolutionary benefits of the sharing motive in Tomasello's theory on the origin of human communication?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-01-04)

In "[Origins of human communication](https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515207/origins-of-human-communication/)" (self described by the author as "an empirically based theory of the evolutionary origins of human communication that challenges the dominant Chomskian view" by a "leading expert on evolution and communication"), Tomasello distinguishes 3 motives for communication:

1. requesting,
2. informing and
3. sharing.

What would be examples of communication only involving the sharing motive and what evolutionary benefits would this give to individuals or groups that engage in it?

Is there any work that expands on this question?
Tomasello himself does not answer the question, or I didn't get his point.

**Tags:** communication, evolutionary-psychology


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-01-19. Score: 0

I find it hard to imagine an example of communication which does not "inform", and from the abstract of the book, I am not sure that Tomasello opposes those three purposes in general, and the purposes of "informing" and "sharing" in particular (but I could not access the book to check its text):

> Requesting help in the immediate you-and-me and here-and-now, for example, required very little grammar, but informing and sharing required increasingly complex grammatical devices.

Examples of communication which are informing and sharing (without requesting) are easy to imagine, such as sharing/informing of a danger or of the location of a source of food.


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