Growth points from the very beginning

McNeill, David; Duncan, Susan D.; Cole, Jonathan; Gallagher, Shaun; Bertenthal, Bennett

doi:10.1075/bct.24.08mcn

Part of

The Emergence of Protolanguage: Holophrasis vs compositionality
Edited by Michael A. Arbib and Derek Bickerton
[Benjamins Current Topics 24] 2010
► pp. 117–132

Growth points from the very beginning

David McNeill | Department of Psychology, University of Chicago

Susan D. Duncan | Department of Psychology, University of Chicago

Jonathan Cole | University of Bournemouth and Clinical Neurological Sciences, Clinical Neurophysiology, Poole Hospital, U. K.

Shaun Gallagher | Department of Philosophy, University of Central Florida

Bennett Bertenthal | Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University

Early humans formed language units consisting of global and discrete dimensions of semiosis in dynamic opposition, or ‘growth points.’ At some point, gestures gained the power to orchestrate actions, manual and vocal, with significances other than those of the actions themselves, giving rise to cognition framed in dual terms. However, our proposal emphasizes natural selection of joint gesture-speech, not ‘gesture-first’ in language origin.

Published online: 3 September 2010

https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.24.08mcn

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