If meaning does not arise gradually, then what precedes it must be described with precision.
Not:
- as primitive meaning,
- not as proto-representation,
- not as early communication in the semiotic sense,
but as:
organisation without construal.
1. The richness of early organisation
The developing infant does not begin in disorder.
From the earliest stages, behaviour is:
- temporally structured,
- differentially responsive,
- and increasingly coordinated.
There is:
- sensitivity to rhythm and timing,
- patterned interaction with caregivers,
- modulation of affect,
- and selective engagement with the environment.
This is not noise.
It is:
highly organised activity.
2. Coordination without meaning
These patterns exhibit:
- contingency (responses depend on prior states),
- mutual adjustment (caregiver and infant co-regulate),
- and stability across repeated interactions.
From the outside, this can appear:
- communicative,
- intentional,
- even meaningful.
But we must be exact.
This organisation is:
coordination under constraint.
It is not construal.
3. The role of value
What organises this coordination is not meaning, but:
value.
That is:
- states are differentiated in relation to:
- regulation,
- continuation,
- and interactional stability.
Some patterns:
- are sustained,
- others are suppressed,
- still others are modulated depending on conditions.
The system is:
- selective,
- adaptive,
- and increasingly refined.
4. Social organisation without semiosis
Crucially, this organisation is not solitary.
It is:
- distributed across infant and caregiver,
- sustained through interaction,
- and shaped by recurrent patterns of engagement.
There is:
- turn-taking,
- synchronisation,
- escalation and de-escalation of affect,
- and coordinated attention.
This is often described as:
“proto-conversation.”
The term is misleading.
5. Why “proto-conversation” fails
Conversation is:
- structured by meaning,
- organised through construal,
- and realised through semiotic systems.
Early interaction exhibits:
- timing,
- alternation,
- responsiveness.
But it does not exhibit:
- role–reference binding,
- substitutional structure,
- or standing-for.
To call it “proto-conversation” is to:
project the semiotic backward.
6. The absence of substitution
We must return to the minimal requirement.
For construal to exist:
- something must function as something else.
In pre-semiotic behaviour:
- actions have effects,
- signals produce responses,
- patterns are stabilised.
But:
nothing functions as a substitute for anything else.
There is:
- no role independent of the act itself,
- no detachment of function from occurrence.
7. The absence of binding
Similarly:
- behaviours may be reliably associated with outcomes,
- certain actions may precede certain responses,
but:
there is no stable binding between a role and what it construes.
Because:
- there is no construal.
Only:
- organised consequence.
8. The system remains closed under value
All organisation remains:
closed within the domain of value.
That is:
- every differentiation is tied to:
- its consequences for the system,
- its role in regulation and coordination.
Nothing in the system:
- points beyond itself,
- functions as something other than what it is,
- or establishes a semiotic relation.
9. Why this matters
It is essential to resist:
- both impoverishment and inflation.
Early behaviour is not:
- simple,
- disorganised,
- or insignificant.
But neither is it:
- meaningful,
- representational,
- or semiotic.
It is:
complex organisation of value without construal.
10. The source of confusion
The confusion arises because:
the organisation of value can closely approximate the effects of meaning.
Behaviour may:
- reliably influence others,
- occur in structured sequences,
- be interpreted by caregivers as intentional.
But these are:
- outcomes of coordination,
- not evidence of construal.
11. The boundary held
We must therefore hold the boundary firmly.
No matter how:
- complex,
- interactive,
- or socially embedded the behaviour becomes,
it remains:
non-semiotic.
Until:
something can function as something else.
12. The problem sharpened
We are now in a position to sharpen the developmental question.
Given:
- richly organised, socially coordinated, value-driven behaviour,
what must occur such that:
an element of that behaviour can be used as a construal?
This is no longer:
- a question of growth,
- nor of increasing coordination,
but of:
functional reorganisation.
13. What comes next
The next step is to confront a persistent error.
If pre-semiotic behaviour can:
- appear meaningful,
- be treated as communicative,
- and sustain interaction,
then:
why are we so easily convinced that meaning is already present?
We must examine:
the illusion of early meaning—
and dismantle it.
Only then can the developmental cut be located without distortion.
No comments:
Post a Comment