Pantomimic conceptions of language origins

Could pantomime have been the key step in the evolutionary emergence of symbolic communication? Such a possibility has been consistently present in the intellectual reflection on language origins. What makes pantomime interesting from this perspective is its rich expressive potential, since it can convey open-ended, semantically universal and displaced meanings without relying on semiotic conventions, so that spontaneous pantomimes can be recognized as such and successfully interpreted. Definitions are important in classifying a particular scenario as “pantomimic.” In this chapter, the authors employ a “rich” definition of pantomime: it is described as bodily-mimetic communication which is non-conventional, improvised, performed with the whole body, holistic, and communicatively and semantically complex. Based on this foundation, the authors review and evaluate pantomimic accounts of language origins, from the past to the present, and particularly focus on the contemporary pantomime accounts given by Michael Arbib, Michael Tomasello, and Jordan Zlatev.