Semiology Glossary

The absence of rational coordination or an intrinsic (or natural) basis. Relativity was perceived as one of if not the most important characteristics of the sign. According to Ferdinand de Saussure and his followers, the sign is a relative relationship between the...

A prefix separated from a Greek word, meaning two things: source and ruler. Thus it conveys the meaning of the two, that from which everything originates and that through which everything is regulated and governed. Much of postmodern thinking is devoted to testing the...

In the most general sense - an initial type or example, according to which all other things are modeled; In Jungian psychology - a predisposition or idea (like the figure of the sage), rooted in the collective unconscious and open to countless manifestations (from...

"Arche-writing" (French: archi-écriture) is a term used by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his attempt to re-orient the relationship between speech and writing. Derrida argued that as far back as Plato, the speech had been always given priority over writing. In...

A term used by Immanuel Kant and adopted by Charles Sanders Peirce, which describes a systematic rather than a random manner in which scientific research should be conducted. It may be suggested that we do not know enough to construct a system of knowledge. But this...

The art of building with a preliminary plan is not just to create shelter, but to convey meaning. Very rarely do purely human activities or artifacts serve one purpose or perform one function, they are usually multifunctional. Clothes, cars, houses, and cities -...

A series of messages in which one or more preconditions are presented as evidence for or in confirmation of another message (conclusion); any thought process whose tendency is to produce belief. In Charles Sanders Peirce's theory of signs, the argument is defined as a...

A term used by Charles S. Peirce to denote a formal or explicit argument. "Argument is any thought process aimed at producing a certain belief. Argumentation is an argument that develops on clearly formulated premises" (CP 6.456). In short, argumentation is the...

From Latin articulus, meaning joint or divided. In the most general sense - any process of division or segmentation; in linguistics, articulation usually means double articulation, a feature often attributed to being unique to human speech. Ferdinand de Saussure held...

The act of pointing out a proposition as if it were true, i.e., as if it is consistent with belief. Insisting that a proposition contains an answer to an inference if it is false is a kind of statement. Charles Sanders Peirce goes further by suggesting that assertion...