Article published In:
Vocalize to Localize IIEdited by Christian Abry, Anne Vilain and Jean-Luc Schwartz
[Interaction Studies 6:2] 2005
► pp. 145–171
Edited by Christian Abry, Anne Vilain and Jean-Luc Schwartz
[Interaction Studies 6:2] 2005
► pp. 145–171
Interweaving protosign and protospeech
Further developments beyond the mirror
Michael A. Arbib | Computer Science, Neuroscience and USC Brain Project, University of Southern California
We distinguish “language readiness” (biological) from “having language” (cultural) and outline a hypothesis for the evolution of the language-ready brain and language involving seven stages: S1: grasping; S2: a mirror system for grasping; S3: a simple imitation system for grasping, shared with the common ancestor of human and chimpanzee; S4: a complex imitation system for grasping; S5: protosign, breaking through the fixed repertoire of primate vocalizations to yield an open repertoire for communication; S6: protospeech, the open-ended production and perception of sequences of vocal gestures, without these sequences constituting a full language; and S7: a process of cultural evolution in Homo sapiens yielding full human languages. The present paper will examine the subhypothesis that protosign (S5) formed a scaffolding for protospeech (S6), but that the two interacted with each other in supporting the evolution of brain and body that made Homo sapiens “language-ready”.
Keywords: language evolution, mirror system, protosign, protospeech
Cited by
Cited by 22 other publications
Arbib, Michael
2006. Aphasia, apraxia and the evolution of the language-ready brain. Aphasiology 20:9 ► pp. 1125 ff. 
Arbib, Michael A.
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Arbib, Michael A.
2006. A Sentence is to Speech as What is to Action?. Cortex 42:4 ► pp. 507 ff.
Arbib, Michael A.
2008. From grasp to language: Embodied concepts and the challenge of abstraction. Journal of Physiology-Paris 102:1-3 ► pp. 4 ff.
Arbib, Michael A.
2009. Evolving the language-ready brain and the social mechanisms that support language. Journal of Communication Disorders 42:4 ► pp. 263 ff.
Arbib, Michael A.
2011. From Mirror Neurons to Complex Imitation in the Evolution of Language and Tool Use. Annual Review of Anthropology 40:1 ► pp. 257 ff.
Arbib, Michael A.
2015. From Action-Oriented Perception to Language. Cognitive Semiotics 8:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Arbib, Michael A.
2017. Dorsal and ventral streams in the evolution of the language-ready brain: Linking language to the world. Journal of Neurolinguistics 43 ► pp. 228 ff.
Arbib, Michael A.
2018. Computational challenges of evolving the language-ready brain. Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 19:1-2 ► pp. 7 ff.
Arbib, Michael A.
2020. Computational challenges of evolving the language-ready brain. In How the Brain Got Language – Towards a New Road Map [Benjamins Current Topics, 112], ► pp. 7 ff.
Arbib, Michael A.
2015. Language Evolution. In The Handbook of Language Emergence, ► pp. 600 ff.
Arbib, Michael A., Katja Liebal & Simone Pika
2008. Primate Vocalization, Gesture, and the Evolution of Human Language. Current Anthropology 49:6 ► pp. 1053 ff.
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Christy, T. Craig
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Corballis, Michael C.
2010. The gestural origins of language. WIREs Cognitive Science 1:1 ► pp. 2 ff.
Grosvald, Michael, Eva Gutierrez, Sarah Hafer & David Corina
2012. Dissociating linguistic and non-linguistic gesture processing: Electrophysiological evidence from American Sign Language. Brain and Language 121:1 ► pp. 12 ff.
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Locke, John L.
2009. Evolutionary developmental linguistics: Naturalization of the faculty of language. Language Sciences 31:1 ► pp. 33 ff.
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2020. Emergent Jaw Predominance in Vocal Development Through Stochastic Optimization. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 12:3 ► pp. 378 ff.
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2015. COSMO (“Communicating about Objects using Sensory–Motor Operations”): A Bayesian modeling framework for studying speech communication and the emergence of phonological systems. Journal of Phonetics 53 ► pp. 5 ff.
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2013. Book review. Lingua 134 ► pp. 27 ff.
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