This paper explores the fundamental role of proprioceptive awareness (PC) in bridging sensorimotor processes, semiotic interpretation, and language development. Drawing from Lotman’s cultural semiotics, Peircean theory, and cognitive neuroscience, we argue that the human capacity to anticipate action—readiness to act—is central to meaning-making. Contrary to views that spatial cognition arises mainly from vision, we propose that axial coordinates (up/down, left/right, near/far) emerge from proprioceptive experience, structuring multimodal cognition and enabling transitions between perception, action, and symbolic thought.
Using Peirce’s triadic model, we show how PC underlies three levels of interpretation: immediate sensation (Immediate Interpretant), affective engagement (Dynamic Interpretant), and cognitive response (Final Interpretant), acting as a modulating mechanism that ensures coherence across them. We support our hypothesis with a study on skilled pianists from the University of Milan-Bicocca, which shows that mental practice—imagining movements without acting—improves performance through enhanced motor anticipation. This suggests that proprioceptive simulation plays a key role in both action and symbolic cognition.
We conclude that communication relies on proprioceptive resonance: the embodied alignment with others’ internal axial coordinates. This shared structure may have shaped human semiotic evolution. Our interdisciplinary model offers new insight into how embodied experience grounds meaning.