By "protosemantics", I mean the study of vehicles of representation in extension, as elements of the natural order. Viewing vehicles of representation as themselves empirical structures, one can say something about their extensional relationships both to one another and to other elements of the natural order which, unlike vehicles of representation, do not also admit of pure normative characterizations. And one can provide an ontological parsing or assay of the representing structures themselves. These enterprises collectively constitute what I call "protosemantics". Examples should make things clearer.