On discovering the semiotic organization of the lexicon

state of health as a multifaceted domain

pp. 121-130

in: Michael Herzfeld, Margot D. Lenhart, Semiotics 1980, Berlin, Springer, 1982

Abstract

Inquiries into the conceptual categories embedded in state of health ordinarily proceed with a theoretical assumption that disease terms, taken alone, provide a legitimate entry point for a semiotic analysis. The analysis is seen as semiotic in the sense that Sebeok identifies "three fundamental semiotic traditions — the medical, the philosophical, and the linguistic" (1978:viii), and in the recognition that medicine, "is constituted as a cultural system in which symbolic meanings take an active part in disease formation, the classification and cognitive management of illness, and in therapy" (Kleinman, 1973:206). Since diagnosing behavior manifests a diagnostic function and since the diagnostic function is a semiotic function, the symptomatic property of behavior is a semiotic property.