From Proto-Semiosis to Protolanguage: 2 Combinatorial Play

In Part 1, we saw how semiotic potential consolidates into a stable repertoire of protosigns, establishing the first unstratified semiotic system: protolanguage. Signals are now recognisable, contrastive, and decoupled from their original behaviours, and they begin to appear in sequences that allow rudimentary relational meaning.

The next stage in the evolution of protolanguage is combinatorial play: the creative and systematic arrangement of signs into sequences that convey more than the sum of their parts.

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Signals in sequence

Early protolanguage sequences are holistic, but they already display an embryonic organisation:

• Signals are juxtaposed to reinforce or modify meaning.

• Temporal or causal relations begin to be represented.

• Repetition and variation allow emphasis and nuance.

For example, a sequence combining a “threat” sign with a “presence” sign may convey “Threat nearby,” while the reverse sequence could signal a different relational nuance. Participants exploit order, combination, and juxtaposition to expand expressive capacity.

Even without stratification, these sequences show that the system can represent relations across time and context, laying the groundwork for more complex interactional meaning.

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Interactional scaffolding

Sequences allow early semiotic systems to support multi-party interaction. Participants can coordinate:

• Attention and focus

• Turn-taking

• Anticipation of others’ responses

This scaffolding is crucial: meaning is relational, and relational complexity increases rapidly as more participants interact. Combinatorial play enables protolanguage to manage this complexity without requiring fully abstract semantics or lexicogrammar.

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Emergence of flexible expression

As sequences become more regularised, protolanguage gains expressive flexibility:

• Individual signs take on different functions depending on context.

• Signals can convey both affective and referential content simultaneously.

• Sequences allow layering of meanings — e.g., signalling both “food” and “friend” in the same act.

This flexibility foreshadows a key feature of stratified language: the separation of meaning from the signal itself, allowing systematic recombination without losing interpretive coherence.

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Play as an evolutionary driver

The combinatorial nature of protolanguage is not simply functional; it is exploratory. Play allows participants to:

• test new signal combinations

• discover new contrasts and distinctions

• negotiate and stabilise conventions

Through play, the semiotic system expands its repertoire and its relational potential. The system begins to resemble a theory of its own instances, where each selection both actualises and shapes the field of possibilities.

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From sequences to holistic meaning

By the end of this stage, protolanguage is capable of representing absent, hypothetical, or socially negotiated phenomena. Its sequences, though unstratified, allow participants to:

• construe events not directly observable

• anticipate actions of others

• manage group coordination beyond immediate circumstances

The semiotic system now supports a rich, emergent potential for meaning, preparing the ground for the next evolutionary step: the emergence of holistic, unstratified semantic acts that constitute early language proper.