Semiosis beyond signs

on two or three missing links on the way to human beings

Göran Sonesson

pp. 81-93

in: Theresa Schilhab, Frederik Stjernfelt, Terrence W. Deacon (eds), The symbolic species evolved, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

Human beings are special in mastering, apart from signs, a number of semiotic resources embedded already in perception, which is not differentiated, but which may still be iconic, indexical, or symbolic. The sign is no doubt one of the missing links between human beings and other animals. An even earlier breaking point between (some) animals and human beings may be the ability to distinguish type and token, that is, to have access to a principle of relevance. Somewhere on the border between relevance and the sign is found the act of imitation. The Peircean sign, which is so much more (and less) than a sign, may be able to account for the emergence of imitation and its accomplishment in the sign function, in the restricted sense.

Cited authors

Peirce Charles Sanders