Before the advent of symbolism, i.e. before the end of the 16th Century, algebraic calculations were made using natural language. Through a kind of metaphorical process, a few terms from everyday life (e.g. thing, root) acquired a technical mathematical status and constituted the specialized language of algebra. The introduction of letters and…

Spaces of meaning are stratified to establish congruence among those belonging to the same semiotic "beams." Individuals may be geographically close yet unable to cooperate because they are not attuned to the same semiotic territory. Families of signs characterize each semiotic territory in which inhabitants are linked conceptually. Symbols and…

Maintains that the study of signs is divided between those scholars who use the Saussurian binary sign (semiology) and those who prefer the Peirce tripartite sign (semiotics). Concludes that neither the Saussurian nor Peircian analysis methods can produce a semiotic interpretation based on a hierarchy of the text's various components. (CFR)

It may be argued that what is considered to be knowledge is intimately related to the manner in which such knowledge is communicated. Thus some social scientists and scientists argue that science itself is a form of communication, and the scientific method it closely bound to the method of interpretation. An important vein of thinking in the…

Discusses several philosophies of linguistics and semiotics that debate the importance of words and their relationship to signs, language as the primary modeling system, and the historical primacy of verbal versus visual communication. Describes human communication as both language-based and nonverbal, both aspects inviting arbitrary and abstract…

The use of a semiotic approach to foreign language literature appreciation and criticism at the college level is advocated as a means of analyzing texts. What is sought first of all is the meaning of the text with the semiotic-linguistic levels of organization that produce the meaning. (MSE)

This study is designed to help provide an understanding of the role semiosis plays in information processes. The object of study is the structure of various types of signs, and a determination of the relationship between sign structure and information properties. A review of the theory of sign structure is followed by an examination of syntactic…