The ontogenesis of meaning: An interactional approach

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The aim of this article is to shed new light on the process through which infants acquire a set of cultural meanings around the use of objects during play interactions with adults. It is based on the authors' longitudinal study of manipulative play interaction between mothers and infants. The authors propose a theoretical framework to explain the acquisition of shared meanings based on ideas borrowed from Vygotsky (intermentality‐intramentality), Trevarthen (primary and secondary subjectivity), Bruner (joint activity formats and narratives), and Peirce (theory of signs). They argue that meanings are generated in a dialogical process in which the adult acts expressively; the infant understands and is then able to reproduce the expressive actions previously performed by his interlocutor. This behavior is a recursive loop that, according to Maturana and Varela, is a typical autopoietic process. With emphasis on the infants' comprehension, a facet rarely studied and often approached from an erroneous standpoint in the psychological study of personal interaction, the authors distance themselves from the traditional Piagetian approach to symbol acquisition by infants. They schematically present some prototypes of interaction, with an emphasis on developing a conceptual framework that could explain how infants gain access to the cultural meanings conveyed in and by everyday human activities.