Proprioception and Multimodality: Integrating Continuity and Discreteness in Language and Gesture<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 17.5pt; mso-bidi-language: TH;">

Introduction: Numerous studies on the ontogenetic development of human language have highlighted the importance of multimodal interactions in learning and communication. This study approaches the topic from a novel perspective, grounded in a fundamental theoretical premise: the multimodality of languages is essential for learning and semiosis, emerging in cognition through proprioceptive awareness. Methodology: The semiotic and communicative activity of different languages is analyzed across two dimensions: continuity and discreteness. These dimensions are shaped by the specialized processes of each cerebral hemisphere and their integration. This study explores these dynamics through an extensive interdisciplinary review of literature from cognitive sciences, semiotics, developmental psychology, and linguistics. Multimodal interactions between mother and infant are analyzed as primary examples, where continuous flows, such as prosody and facial expressions, integrate with discrete elements, such as first words and tactile or visual stimuli. Results: The integrated processing emerging from the right hemisphere (semantic continuity) and the left hemisphere (syntactic discreteness) transcends the mere sum of their specialized information. Instead, this integration operates at a metalevel enabled by multimodal metaphors. This creative process is facilitated by the proprioceptive-kinesthetic system, which also involves the cerebellum and limbic areas. This system, aware of the body&rsquo;s action space and its parts, organizes external stimuli (perceptual, exteroceptive) and internal stimuli (emotional, interoceptive) into configurations built upon natural axial coordinates. These coordinates are rooted in brain-body lateralization and the vertical axis associated with upright posture and balance. Moment by moment, in readiness for action, the sensory, emotional, and other properties of elements within proprioceptive awareness form &ldquo;configurations of meaning&rdquo; that simultaneously embody semantic and syntactic programming features. Conclusion: The findings of this study aim to deepen our understanding of multimodal communication and offer insights for further research into language and communication disorders in children. Proprioception is proposed as fundamental to a comprehensive understanding of semiotic and cognitive systems. The multimodal integration paradigm of continuity-discreteness aspires to transcend the traditional conception of modal languages as autonomous in their expressive and functional domains.