ABSTRACT
To this point, the focus of this volume has been the development of the human sound-making capability, an infraphonological matter. From this point forward the treatment incorporates issues of the usage of potential signals, an infrasemiotic matter. To illustrate the distinction between signal and usage in protophone development consider the nature of vocalization in the Primitive Articulation stage. The various articulations and vocalizations that occur in gooing reveal something about infraphonological development, but gooing interactions also tell us something about how babies connect with other people vocally and facially. Babies use gooing to do something important. Through the interactions that include gooing, they establish and build a relationship with their caretakers. Similarly, the Expansion stage is a period during which babies perform important functions with vocalization. On the one hand they pursue social usage of sounds, but they also use Expansion stage protophones for practice in vocal control.
