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Abstract

Within a semiogenetic theory of the emergence and evolution of the language sign, I claim that a structural-notional analysis of submorphemic data provided by certain reconstructed PIE roots and their reflexes, projected as far back as theories of the evolution of speech will permit by a principle of articulatory invariance, points to the existence of an unconscious neurophysiologically grounded strategy for 'naming' parts of the body. Specifically, it is claimed that the occlusive sounds produced by open-close movements of the mouth, which have been shown experimentally to be synchronized with open-close movements of the hand(s), may have functioned as 'core invariants'. Morphogenetically transformed into conventionalized language signs, these could have served to 'name' not only the mouth movements and articulators involved, but also the hand movements with which they appear to be coordinated, as well as the hand itself.

@inproceedings{philps06evolang,
  author={Dennis Philps},
  title={From mouth to hand},
  year={2006},
  pages={247-254},
  booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/philps06evolang.html}
}