TABLE 3.

Social inference (non-communicative) and three types of inferential communication presented in ascending order of complexity in terms of the signal production and comprehension.

	Concept	Signaler’s intention	Recipient’s inference	Cognitive skills
Social Inference	Instrumental Action	I want to do X	What does she want to do?	Goal attribution
	Ambiguous Signal			Prosociality Informative Intention
Inferential Communication	Re-purposed Signal	I want her to do X (= x1 + x2 + x3) for me	What does she want me to do?	Innovation Context Rationalization
	New Signal			Iconicity Pantomime

Also depicted is the signaler’s intention and recipient’s understanding of those signals in reference to the intention communicated by the signaler. Bold lettering represents the social and goal-directed nature of the signaler’s intention and the recipient’s inference.