From Proto-Semiosis to Protolanguage: 3 Towards Unstratified Meaning Systems

In Part 2, we explored combinatorial play: how early protolanguage sequences expand expressive flexibility, coordinate multiple participants, and stabilise emergent conventions. By juxtaposing and recombining signals, protolanguage creates the first semiotic structures capable of representing absent, hypothetical, or socially negotiated phenomena.

The next step is the emergence of holistic, unstratified meaning systems: the fully operational semiotic structures that precede stratified language.

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Holistic semantic acts

Protolanguage sequences do more than string signals together. They begin to function as holistic semantic acts:

• Each sequence construes a situation in its entirety, rather than only conveying a single referent or affect.

• Meaning remains undifferentiated: affect, reference, and social function are still bundled together.

• Each act is interpreted in context, drawing upon shared knowledge and construal practices.

At this stage, the system is not yet stratified into lexicogrammar and semantics. Yet it is fully capable of coordinating complex meaning across interactions.

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Abstract reference emerges

With holistic acts, protolanguage can begin to represent absent or hypothetical entities:

• Food sources at a distance

• Predators not currently present

• Future actions or plans

• Social relationships and alliances

These representations are relational: meaning arises from the selection of signals within a shared repertoire, not from the signals themselves. The system is still unstratified, but it already mediates understanding beyond immediate experience.

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System expansion and differentiation

As the repertoire and combinatorial sequences grow, the semiotic system becomes richer and more complex:

• New signals are added, creating finer contrasts and distinctions.

• Sequences become longer and more structured, increasing expressive potential.

• Participants learn to anticipate and interpret complex sequences flexibly, stabilising conventions and expanding shared construal.

This expansion lays the foundation for the structural differentiation that stratified language will later formalise.

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Protolanguage as a semiotic infrastructure

At this stage, protolanguage functions as a semiotic infrastructure:

• It is a system of potential from which instances of meaning can be drawn.

• Each interaction both actualises and shapes the system.

• Meaning is relational, emergent, and flexible, supporting increasingly sophisticated coordination.

In relational-ontology terms, protolanguage is a theory of its instances: each selection realises potential, and each realisation in turn constrains and expands potential.

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Preparing for stratification

The unstratified system of protolanguage is now poised for the next transformation:

• Holistic acts will eventually differentiate into lexicogrammar and semantics, separating form from meaning.

• The system will acquire the combinatorial power of productivity, enabling abstraction, reference, and complex discourse.

• Participants will gain the capacity to reflect on, analyse, and manipulate meaning itself, setting the stage for fully stratified language and, eventually, reflexive semiosis.

In short, protolanguage is the bridge between protosemiosis and stratified language. It transforms minimal semiotic potential into a robust, flexible system capable of sustaining the evolution of structured meaning.

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.

From Proto-Semiosis to Protolanguage: 1 Protosign to Repertoire

In the previous series, we traced the emergence of semiosis from value systems. Behaviour became selectable, signals became stylised, and shared construal produced protosemiotic potential. Meaning had entered the world.

But at this stage, semiotic potential is still minimal. Signals exist, but the system is small, fragile, and limited in expressive power. For semiosis to expand, the earliest participants in the system must begin to stabilise and extend their repertoire.

This is the threshold of protolanguage: the first semiotic system capable of combining, contrasting, and flexibly deploying meaning.

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Consolidation of early signals

The first task for any emerging protosemiotic system is to consolidate its signals. Early signs must become:

• Recognisable across instances: a signal must be consistent enough that different participants reliably construe it the same way.

• Distinct from other signals: contrast is essential for maintaining meaning. Signals must occupy recognisable “slots” within the system.

• Stable across contexts: early semiotic acts must be repeatable, decoupled from the immediate behaviour that produced them.

This consolidation transforms raw protosemiotic potential into a structured repertoire. Even with only a handful of signals, the system now provides participants with multiple meaningful alternatives, the first combinatorial substrate for language.

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Expansion through contrast

Contrast is the lifeblood of meaning. Each signal exists relative to other possible signals. The addition of new signals does more than increase quantity; it multiplies the field of potential construals.

Early participants exploit these contrasts to negotiate increasingly sophisticated interactions:

• distinguishing threat from affiliation

• signalling attention versus desire

• marking presence versus absence

Even at this stage, meaning is relational, arising from the structured field of signals rather than from the signals themselves.

The repertoire thus becomes a growing lattice of potential construals, where each new addition interacts with existing signals to produce richer semantic possibilities.

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Stabilising protosequences

Once a repertoire exists, signals begin to appear in sequences. Early combinatorial patterns allow participants to:

• reinforce or modify meaning through juxtaposition

• indicate temporal or causal relations

• manage interactional dynamics across multiple participants

These sequences are proto-syntactic in nature. They are not yet stratified into lexicogrammar and semantics, but they demonstrate the system’s capacity to organise meaning across time and context.

Through sequences, the semiotic system moves beyond individual acts, creating holistic, unstratified meaning structures. Participants can now express relations that extend beyond the immediate situation, foreshadowing the leap to protolanguage.

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The birth of protolanguage

At the culmination of these developments, the semiotic system exhibits the hallmarks of protolanguage:

1. A stable repertoire of signs

2. Contrastive potential, producing relational meaning

3. Sequential organisation, enabling combinatorial expression

Protolanguage remains unstratified — signals carry multiple layers of meaning simultaneously — but it is already a system of possibilities, capable of representing absent, imagined, or socially negotiated phenomena.

In relational terms, protolanguage is the first fully actualised semiotic system: a structured potential from which instances of meaning can be drawn, manipulated, and expanded.