Chapter 3. Narrative and pantomime at the origin of language
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Francesco Ferretti
Abstract
The present chapter proposes a pantomimic account of language origin resting on a persuasive/narrative conception of human communication. Relying on the twofold constraint of the cognitive architectures responsible for the processing of the mental content and of the material resources for expressing that content, I suggest that pantomime represented an ideal means to convey proto-narrative representations in the absence of verbal language. Although representing an early effective form of protolanguage because of its narrative persuasive power, pantomime shows its limits in sustaining a more sophisticated type of communication characterizing face-to-face conversation. In this context, the need to engage in an arguing-counterarguing dialectics might have created new selective pressures towards complex syntactic structures able to support argumentative forms of persuasion.
Abstract
The present chapter proposes a pantomimic account of language origin resting on a persuasive/narrative conception of human communication. Relying on the twofold constraint of the cognitive architectures responsible for the processing of the mental content and of the material resources for expressing that content, I suggest that pantomime represented an ideal means to convey proto-narrative representations in the absence of verbal language. Although representing an early effective form of protolanguage because of its narrative persuasive power, pantomime shows its limits in sustaining a more sophisticated type of communication characterizing face-to-face conversation. In this context, the need to engage in an arguing-counterarguing dialectics might have created new selective pressures towards complex syntactic structures able to support argumentative forms of persuasion.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction. Perspectives on pantomime 1
- Chapter 1. Pantomime within and beyond the evolution of language 16
- Chapter 2. The relations of demonstration and pantomime to causal reasoning and event cognition 58
- Chapter 3. Narrative and pantomime at the origin of language 78
- Chapter 4. Two types of bodily-mimetic communication 100
- Chapter 5. Can pantomime narrate? 115
- Chapter 6. The pantomimic origins of the narrative arts 139
- Chapter 7. The pantomime roots of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language 159
- Chapter 8. Symbolic distancing in three-year-old children’s object-use pantomime 188
- Chapter 9. Gestural mimesis as “as-if” action 217
- Index 243
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction. Perspectives on pantomime 1
- Chapter 1. Pantomime within and beyond the evolution of language 16
- Chapter 2. The relations of demonstration and pantomime to causal reasoning and event cognition 58
- Chapter 3. Narrative and pantomime at the origin of language 78
- Chapter 4. Two types of bodily-mimetic communication 100
- Chapter 5. Can pantomime narrate? 115
- Chapter 6. The pantomimic origins of the narrative arts 139
- Chapter 7. The pantomime roots of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language 159
- Chapter 8. Symbolic distancing in three-year-old children’s object-use pantomime 188
- Chapter 9. Gestural mimesis as “as-if” action 217
- Index 243
