Acceso usuarios
Giovanni Manetti
For the last few years semiotics has been undertaking a search for its origins. One of the most important points we can observe reviewing the history of origins of semiotics is that there is a profound fracture between the ancient semiotic theories and the Saussurean semeiotic line. In effect, the model of sign proposed by Saussure is based on the equivalence between the signifier and the signified and presupposes a notion of language as a code which puts into biunivocal relation elements of expression with elements of content, suggesting a type of semantics in form of “dictionary”. On the contrary, there is continuity between the theories of sign in classical antiquity and the contemporary line of cognitive semiotics as represented by Peirce, Morris and the scholars who are now following their path. In ancient semiotics theories, the sign is conceived according a model based on "inference". This form is better adapted to operate with modern semantics in the "encyclopedia" form. Encyclopedia semantics also considers the linguistic sign as functioning according to the inference model, because it connects every sign with a hypothetical plurality of contexts and circumstances. In fact, languages, as has been understood, are not codes, but much more complex systems, and the inferential model of sign makes it possible to master this complexity.
