The evolution of vestimentary signs

Abstract EN

The paper is a corpus-based research on the evolution of vestimentary signs.

Vestimentary signs mark an intermediary position between natural signs of the human or animal body and artificial signs like linguistic grammars.

Natural signs of the body may be visual like body size or volume which may signal strength and wealth.

They can also be acoustic like deep frequencies of the voice related to the length of the larynx and thus to size of the body.

Even in animals these signal are manipulated, thus male bears stand up, peacocks deploy their feathers and make rivals or females believe that they are big and strong.

Deers and wolfs lower their larynx and makes rivals believe that they are big and strong.

This seems to be the base line from which artificial, voluntarily shaped signs evolve.