With the developmental cut established, we can now identify what follows it.
Not:
- the gradual emergence of language,
- not the accumulation of communicative forms,
- not the early stages of a system already in place,
but:
the first stable organisation in which construal operates.
This is protolanguage.
1. A system, but only just
Protolanguage is not:
- a collection of behaviours,
- nor a set of learned signals.
It is:
a system.
That is:
- construals are not isolated,
- but organised in relation to one another,
- and reproducible across instances.
This is minimal systemhood:
- limited in scope,
- but structurally real.
2. Construal is now operative
The defining condition is now satisfied:
- behaviours function as roles,
- roles are bound to what they construe,
- and this organisation is stable.
This means:
meaning now exists.
Not as:
- interpretation by others,
- not as inferred intention,
but:
within the organisation of the system itself.
3. Functional differentiation
Within this minimal system, distinctions emerge.
Construals are not identical.
They function differently.
This corresponds, in descriptive terms, to what M.A.K. Halliday identifies as early functional categories:
- instrumental,
- regulatory,
- interactional,
- personal.
But these are not:
- labels applied from outside,
they are:
differentiations within the system of construal itself.
4. Holistic organisation
At this stage, construals are:
holistic.
That is:
- each act functions as a whole,
- there is no internal compositional structure,
- no independent elements combining to form larger units.
There is:
- no lexicogrammar,
- no segmentation into parts,
- no recombination across elements.
Each construal is:
a single, undivided act.
5. Limited substitution
Substitution now exists—but in restricted form.
- A given role may be realised with some variation,
- similar acts may function in the same role,
but:
substitution is not yet systematised.
There is:
- no full paradigm of alternatives,
- no organised set of choices across contexts.
constrained and local.
6. Absence of stratification
Crucially, protolanguage lacks:
stratification.
There is no clear differentiation between:
- meaning (semantics),
- and its realisation (lexicogrammar).
The system operates:
- on a single plane,
- where construal and its expression are not separated.
This is why:
- acts are holistic,
- variation is limited,
- and generativity is constrained.
7. Tight coupling to situation
Protolanguage remains:
closely bound to immediate context.
Construals:
- are tied to ongoing activity,
- depend heavily on shared situation,
- and do not extend far beyond the present interaction.
There is:
- little abstraction,
- minimal displacement,
- and no independence from context.
8. Minimal generativity
Because:
- there is no stratification,
- and no internal compositional structure,
the system has:
limited generative capacity.
It can:
- reproduce existing construals,
- vary them slightly,
- extend them across similar situations.
But it cannot:
- systematically generate new meanings through recombination.
9. Why this is still fully semiotic
Despite these limitations, we must be clear:
protolanguage is not partial meaning.
It is not:
- pre-semiotic,
- nor transitional in kind.
It is:
fully semiotic, minimally organised.
The defining condition—construal—has been met.
Everything that follows:
- elaborates this organisation,
- but does not introduce it.
10. The structural tension
Protolanguage is therefore unstable in a specific way.
It must:
- support increasing differentiation of meaning,
- accommodate expanding interaction,
- and maintain coherence across use.
But its organisation:
- is too flat,
- too tightly bound to context,
- and too limited in generativity.
This creates:
pressure for further reorganisation.
11. The direction of development
From this point, development is no longer:
from non-semiotic to semiotic.
That transition has already occurred.
Instead, development becomes:
intra-semiotic.
That is:
- expansion of system,
- increase in generativity,
- emergence of stratification,
- and organisation of variation.
12. The position secured
We can now state the status of protolanguage precisely:
protolanguage is the first stable system in which behaviour functions as construal, organised minimally as a semiotic system without stratification.
It is:
- post-cut,
- pre-architectural.
13. What comes next
The limitations of protolanguage are not incidental.
They are structural.
We must now ask:
why can this system not scale?
What prevents it from:
- expanding indefinitely,
- organising increasing complexity,
- and functioning as full language?
The answer will not be:
- lack of input,
- nor insufficient learning,
but:
limitations in its organisation.
And these limitations will force the next transformation.
No comments:
Post a Comment