0061 Now, I turn to the second issue (N).
This second issue lines up with the topic of chapter six: iconic and arbitrary words.
0062 Certain spoken words act as icons, or pictures, of features of their referents.
For example, mice squeak and lions roar. The high-frequency sounds of “mice” and “squeak” contrast with the low-frequency sounds of “lion” and “roar”. So, Mithen proposes that the sounds of words could serve as icons (or images) of their referents, thus achieving displacement (where the word stands for the referent even when the referent is not present). He proposes a specific mechanism of how that could occur.
0063 I say, “Why not use manual-brachial gestures to the same effect?”
A tiny motion can picture a mouse. A broad motion can image a lion. And, the sounds that they make can be denoted by accompanying facial expressions. In this way, “mouse squeaks” is performed by a manual-brachial gesture, [pantomime MOUSE], while facially expressing sound, [open MOUTH], and further gesturing [point to EAR].
Now, imagine “me” being a short distance outside of a the forest, digging tubers with sticks, with a team of seven or eight. One of my compatriots catches my attention and quietly signs [image JAGUAR][point to TREE]. Then, without lifting my head much, I see that everyone is gathering what tubers they have into their leaf baskets.
0064 Now that is displacement!
There are three males in the team. We know that it is our job to cover the retreat. I quietly grab two rocks, one for each hand, and look toward the elder for a signal.
0065 Manual-brachial gestures are inherently iconic and indexal, more so than any “iconic” sound. Hand-talk gesture-words are natural signs that picture and point to their referents regardless of whether the referent is present (or in this case, seen if I only turn around). The question becomes, “If the referent is not present, then how do I guess what the referent must be?”
0066 Ah, there must be more.
The manual-brachial gestures must be sufficiently distinct that they are rapidly decoded. In short, they must operate as symbols, that is, as signs whose sign-objects are determined on the basis of habit, convention and so forth.
At the foundation, each symbol in a symbolic order is recognizably different than any other symbol. A finite symbolic order permits symbolic operations (that is, grammar).
0067 Manual-brachial word gestures are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. It is as if each “word-gesture” has only a limited number of edges, or other manual-brachial gesture-words, that they fit into. So, a leading word-gesture2a will have the potential to lock-in1a around four other word-gestures.
This constraint may be considered a symbolic aspect that is intrinsic to the icons and indexes of manual-brachial word-gestures.
0068 Here is a picture of six pieces and how they will assemble, according to the prior example.
0069 Connecting one piece to another is similar to a symbolic operation.
Civilized folk do not need to be instructed in how to handle a jigsaw puzzle. The big picture is on the box. Each of the little pieces has a fragment of the big picture. Plus, each little piece has edges that lock onto other pieces in a way that expands that fragment. I call the result, “an assembly”.
Manual-brachial word-gestures assemble into a fragment of the big picture.
0070 Suddenly, a jaguar, who nobody noticed before, is in a nearby tree. I suppose that a vulture landing at the top of the tree caught the gaze of a member of the team. We know what vultures are all about. A vulture perching nearby is not a welcome sign.
The elder looks at me and signs [YOU (pointing to me)][image-RUN][point RIGHT][image-THROW].
0071 When it comes to moving, as a team, back towards the safety of the forested woods, I will roll right and prepare to throw my rock at the jaguar. The other fellow will roll left and do the same. I come to this plan, not using explicit abstractions, but through implicit abstraction.
0072 How does implicit abstraction work?
The iconic and indexal nature of the word-gesture permits displacement, where the referent no longer needs to be actually present. (Mithen quotes psychologists Pamela Perniss and Gabriella Vigliocco to this effect on page 151 of the text.)
At the same time, the symbolic character of each word-gesture means that it not only is distinct from other gesture-words, but it also fits with other word-gestures through simple operations, just like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fit together through simple, intuitively natural, operations. The symbolic character of protolinguistic hand-talk develops independently within each hominin team, under conditions of obligatory collaborative foraging.
0073 Implicit abstraction is holistic. So, the sensible construction of what I am going to do does not dwell on each piece that goes into an assembly. Instead, just like a modern human toying with pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a sensible construction snaps together as a gestalt.
Through the habits of the team, iconic and indexal manual-brachial gestures take on a distinctiveness that makes each gesture into a recognizable word.