protolinguisticadj.
/ˌprəʊtə(ʊ)lɪŋˈɡwɪstɪk/, U.S. /ˈˌproʊdoʊlɪŋˈɡwɪstɪk/ 1. Designating or relating to the beginnings of language; spec. designating or relating to non-verbal means of communication from which spoken language is thought to have developed.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > [adjective] > terms relating to origin of language > prior to emergence of (grammatical) language
prelingual1872
pregrammatical1878
prelinguistic1884
pre-language1928
protolinguistic1955
1955 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 68 481 Primitive myths may be regarded as the early expressions of man's storytelling urge so far as it is..conditioned by such proto-linguistic tendencies as diaphoric ambiguity.
1959 Jrnl. Philos. 56 141 Natanson recognizes the importance on an undeveloped suggestion of Mead's about the role of ‘proto-linguistic’ communication.
1978 Sci. Amer. Apr. 104/3 If..the hominids under observation communicated only as chimpanzees do or perhaps by means of very rudimentary protolinguistic signals, then the observer might feel he was witnessing the activities of some kind of fascinating bi-pedal ape.
2004 Nature 14 Oct. 745/1 If we seek the ultimate origins of language, we also need to look further back, beyond the first protolinguistic systems, to whatever prelinguistic systems may have preceded any form of language.
2. Of or relating to the study of protolinguistics. rare.
ΚΠ
1976 R. W. Wescott in Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 280 115 Some protolinguistic problems, finally, are due almost exclusively to lack of information.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1955