170 / 298
Horst Steinke
170
([b]egins also, reciprocally, to draw the attention of the adult interlocutors to
objects, with the aid of deictic gestures for explanatory […] or imperative
purposes (pointing out the objects desired or demanding an action on the part
of the onlookers)» (Id.,
Introduzione alla filosofia delle lingue
, Bari, Laterza, 2007,
pp. 58-59). See
ibid.
, pp. 56-65 for a more detailed overview of language-
acquisition by children, from the prenatal stage to a few years old. Vico ex-
panded iconicity of this type to include coats-of-arms, medals, coins, by virtue
of the fact that «they spoke forth in their very muteness» (§ 484). See also S.
Fortuna,
Processi simbolici e parti (pluri)gemellari
, cit., p. 119; J. Trabant,
Sémata
,
cit., p. 80.
310
Succinctly stated (following a statement on the strength of memory and
imagination of children) in Axiom L (§ 212): «This axiom is the principle of
the expressiveness of the poetic images that the world formed in its first
childhood».
311
M. Danesi also spoke of the «iconicity hypothesis»: «The iconicity hy-
pothesis proposes that iconic thinking is a more rudimentary form of cogni-
tion and that metaphors attest to the pictorial aspect of consciousness» (Id.,
Language and the Origin of the Human Imagination
, cit., p. 50). While we agree with
the “iconicity” designation as such, in our view it not only transcends “rudi-
mentary” cognition, but actually is the acme of cognition. Vitiello said it best:
«E qual è questo elemento comune [al linguaggio delle origini e a quello vi-
chiano]? La loro essenziale, costitutiva “iconicità”. Sono, infatti, entrambi lin-
guaggi di “idee”. Si intenda bene: il termine “idea” va qui preso nel senso suo
proprio, quello che discende da
eîdos
(And what is this common element [in
the language of the origins, and Vico’s]? Their essential, constitutive “iconici-
ty”. In fact, both are languages of “ideas”. To be clear: the term “idea” is used
here in its original sense which is derived from
eîdos
)» (Id.,
…quell’innata propie-
tà della mente umana di dilettarsi dell’uniforme…
, in
Il sapere poetico e gli universali fan-
tastici,
cit., pp. 73-95, p. 82). Modern neuroscientific research appears to sup-
port a close interplay between thinking and gestural communication (see M.
B. Schippers et al.,
Mapping the information flow from one brain to another during ges-
tural communication,
in «PNAS», 107, 2010, 20, pp. 9388-9393). While Trabant
coined, and preferred, the phrase “sematology”, he came close to our termi-
nology, when writing that: «the
sémata
are
messages
[…]; they are
visual
(i.e. writ-
ten); they are
iconic
(
somiglianze,
“resemblances”)» (Id.,
Sémata
, cit., pp. 80-81;
italics original).
312
Paraphrased as «universal images born from the imagination» in A.
Manguel,
Homer’s The Iliad
and
The Odyssey
:
A Biography
, New York, Atlantic
Monthly Press, 2007, p. 151. See the multifaceted exposition on «imaginative
universals» in D. Ph. Verene,
Vico’s Science of Imagination
, cit., pp. 65-95.