An Investigation of Linguistic Signs in Interaction with other Communicative Signs

زبانشناسی و گویش های خراسان

Article 4, Volume 5, Issue 8, April 2013, Pages 81-102   

Document Type: علمی - پژ‍وهشی

DOI: 10.22067/lj.v5i8.34488

Author

Fatemeh Nemati^*

Abstract

Adopting a humanistic, communicative-based approach to semiotics, this paper aims at investigating the status of linguistic signs and their interaction with other communicative signs. The status of linguistic sign is first studied in semiotic theories spanning ancient, middle ages and modern era. Based on the commonalities envisaged in four contemporary semiotic theories done in the spirit of the two overarching semiotic paradigms of Peirce and Saussure, a working definition of linguistic sign is proposed: all the linguistic units in their different literal and non-literal usages are signs, given the existence of a human interpretant. Linguistic sign, on a par with other nonlinguistic communicative signs, can well be the subject of study in semiotics. In every communicative event, linguistic and nonlinguistic signs are interacting to different degrees and taking into account the different codes (logical, social or aesthetic) of their occurrence, the prominence of each type of signs in communication leads to a different interpretive experience.

Keywords

Semiotics; Linguistic sign; Nonlinguistic sign; Communication