This article is concerned with how meaning potential, in particular an individual's personalized meaning potential, emerges from acts of meaning. This happens during different time frames: logogenetic--the creation of meaning in text; ontogenetic--the learning of a personalized meaning potential; and phylogenetic--the evolution of the collective…

In this chapter, the historical roots of contemporary Practice Theory are unearthed in the work of semioticians, philosophers, and anthropologists. Saussure's semiotic theory is contrasted with that of Peirce, and the importance of Peirce's work for understanding the context of signs is stressed. The philosophy of language in the writings of…