On ‘semiotics’ as naming the doctrine of signs
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John Deely
John Deely (b. 1942) is Full Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, Houston and Executive Director of the Semiotic Society of America 〈deelyj@stthom.edu〉. His main research interest is the role of the action of signs in mediating objects and things, in particular the manner in which experience itself is a dynamic structure or web woven of triadic relations (signs in the strict sense) where elements (representamens, significates, and interpretants) interchange positions and roles over time in the spiral of semiosis. His most recent principal publications include
Four Ages of Understanding (2001);What Distinguishes Human Understanding (2002);The Impact on Philosophy of Semiotics (2003); andWhy Semiotics? (2004). HisBasics of Semiotics (1990) is now in its fourth edition with translations in Japanese, Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukranian, Estonian, and Italian. German and Bulgarian editions are in preparation.
Abstract
This article traces the comparative fortunes of the terms ‘semiology’ and ‘semiotics,’ with the associated expressions ‘science of signs’ and ‘doctrine of signs,’ from their original appearance in English dictionaries in the 1800s through their adoption in the 1900s as focal points in discussions of signs that flourished after pioneering writings by Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure. The greater popularity of ‘semiology’ by mid-century was compromised by Thomas Sebeok's seminal proposal of signs at work among all animals, and Umberto Eco's work marked a ‘tipping point’ where the understanding associated with ‘semiotics’ came to prevail over the glottocentrism associated with ‘semiology.’
About the author
John Deely (b. 1942) is Full Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, Houston and Executive Director of the Semiotic Society of America 〈deelyj@stthom.edu〉. His main research interest is the role of the action of signs in mediating objects and things, in particular the manner in which experience itself is a dynamic structure or web woven of triadic relations (signs in the strict sense) where elements (representamens, significates, and interpretants) interchange positions and roles over time in the spiral of semiosis. His most recent principal publications include Four Ages of Understanding (2001); What Distinguishes Human Understanding (2002); The Impact on Philosophy of Semiotics (2003); and Why Semiotics? (2004). His Basics of Semiotics (1990) is now in its fourth edition with translations in Japanese, Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukranian, Estonian, and Italian. German and Bulgarian editions are in preparation.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- On ‘semiotics’ as naming the doctrine of signs
- The Homeric Hymn to Hermes: A journey across the continuum of paradox
- ‘Read my hands not my lips’: Untrained observers' ability to interpret children's gestures
- Application d'une méthode de linguistique textuelle au livre de Ruth
- Connotations in semiotic systems of visual art (through the example of works by M. A. Vrubel)
- Dyadic versus triadic sign models in functional and object-oriented computer programming paradigms
- Life and semiosis: The real nature of information and meaning
- The cybersemiotic model of communication: An evolutionary model of the threshold between semiosis and informational exchange
- The semiotics of ‘difference’ in Roentgen diagnosis
- Mythic algebra uses: Metaphor, logic, and the semiotic sign
- An interview with Peter Ladefoged
- An interview with Elizabeth Closs Traugott
- A note on life as meaning-making machinery
- The Palace of La Moneda: From the trauma of the Hawker Hunters to the therapy of the signs
- A multiculturalist approach to discourse theory
- Formal conditions for the significance-effect
- Decoding speech prosody in five languages
- From Umwelt to Mitwelt: Natural laws versus rule-governed sign-mediated interactions (rsi's)
- The contribution of G. W. Leibniz's ‘cognitio symbolica’ theory to current debates on knowledge and communication management
Articles in the same Issue
- On ‘semiotics’ as naming the doctrine of signs
- The Homeric Hymn to Hermes: A journey across the continuum of paradox
- ‘Read my hands not my lips’: Untrained observers' ability to interpret children's gestures
- Application d'une méthode de linguistique textuelle au livre de Ruth
- Connotations in semiotic systems of visual art (through the example of works by M. A. Vrubel)
- Dyadic versus triadic sign models in functional and object-oriented computer programming paradigms
- Life and semiosis: The real nature of information and meaning
- The cybersemiotic model of communication: An evolutionary model of the threshold between semiosis and informational exchange
- The semiotics of ‘difference’ in Roentgen diagnosis
- Mythic algebra uses: Metaphor, logic, and the semiotic sign
- An interview with Peter Ladefoged
- An interview with Elizabeth Closs Traugott
- A note on life as meaning-making machinery
- The Palace of La Moneda: From the trauma of the Hawker Hunters to the therapy of the signs
- A multiculturalist approach to discourse theory
- Formal conditions for the significance-effect
- Decoding speech prosody in five languages
- From Umwelt to Mitwelt: Natural laws versus rule-governed sign-mediated interactions (rsi's)
- The contribution of G. W. Leibniz's ‘cognitio symbolica’ theory to current debates on knowledge and communication management
