This version substantially revises and expands the theoretical framework proposed in the earlier preprint (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18495021). The article proposes a theoretical mechanism describing a shift in semantic perception within the structure of the microgesture as a polysemiotic sign. This version is conceived as a self-contained theoretical formulation and does not attempt a systematic engagement with the broader mainstream literature at this stage. It is assumed that early human communication was polysemiotic in nature: its modalities were coordinated but structurally independent. Imagistic semantics was anchored in bodily motor schemas, while vocalization primarily fulfilled signaling and regulatory functions. The rationalization and reduction of bodily action led to the formation of the microgesture—an articulatorily realized polysemiotic construction uniting a bodily motor base with its acoustic projection. The novelty of the study lies in describing a directed mechanism operating at this stage. The synchronization of modalities within the microgesture creates the conditions for a change in their perceived functional hierarchy. Under conditions of acoustic-channel dominance in interpretation, the vocal projection gradually stabilizes as the explicit bearer of meaning. As a result, a speech element emerges—historically bodily yet synchronically vocal—preserving the imagistic-motor structure of the microgesture. Gestural and vocal modalities are thus interpreted not as systems replacing one another, but as historically interconnected levels of realization of a unified imagistic-motor mechanism.
Sergei Gennadevich Zaitsev (Mon,) studied this question.