Do all (human/natural) languages belong to the one and same semiotic system or does each and every language possess its own semiotic system?
By the way, defining "semiotic system" is indeed part of the problem here; what is a "semiotic system" to begin with?
Thank you very much!
Hello
The word sign ha been used 146 times in the Bible and 85 times in the Quran. The Quran says "indeed, in that is a sign for people who think" (16:11). The human beings are invited to know the Creator of the Universe through these signs. The first sign theory was by St. Augustine (354-430 AD), but he did not use the term semiotics. He defined a natural sign as found in nature - colors and shapes of natural objects as well as signals of animal responses. He also distinguished natural signs from the signs made by humans.
If there is a direct relation between a sign and its meaning, then we are in a position to hold an opinion that different languages have their different signs, but it is not so. The concept of sign is the same for all languages because the concept of sign is not related to any language; it is related to a way of communication, and all languages are for communication.
The question is unclear. Unless "semiotic system" is defined, answering is impossible. What is a semiotic system?
Hi Etienne!
The answer can be resolved in different ways and it depends on how you conceptualize sign systems. If we go by modeling systems theory from a Sebeokian perspective (ref. Book The Forms of Meaning: Modeling Systems Theory and Semiotic Analysis
), we can perhaps describe sign systems based on cognitive infrastructure and the build-up of signs by complexity. So basically we can think of modeling systems as what enables signs to be more complex in the cognition of a given organism. The idea here is that there are three levels: The primary modeling system is the actual biological, perceptual and cognitive apparatus used by organisms to relate to their worlds. We build on the primary modeling system with signs that seem to ground experience, such as language. In this sense, language--the expressed ability for language--would constitute a secondary modeling system. And on top of that, at the highest level of complexity in the hierarchy of signs, we'd have tertiary modeling systems, that is, systems that build on language to resignify our world, such as what we do with language in literature.Can an individual language present a sign system of its own? Not completely, at least in this perspective. All languages are capable of expressing the same things, albeit with lexical differences, and all languages seem to be built upon the same biological and cognitive system. If that is the case, all languages would still depend on very similar, if not identical, cognitive infrastructures.
On the other hand, we may say that the specificity of a secondary modeling system (qua language) can reflect unique mereological relations with the world. If that is the case, languages would still build some individuality, and they would comprise individual sign systems for each language with the caveat that we'd be talking about a secondary level of reference for a sign system.
The point to take home here is that sign systems are not a binary relation. Instead, semiotic processes in organisms depend on multiple aspects, some of them general and some of them much more idiosyncratic.
Hope this helps!
The question is unclear and cannot be answered, until the notion of "semiotic system" is made precise.
Semiotic systems are those signs thatt signify meaning in particular language. We have the signifier and the signified in the semiotic system of languges." Dog" in Engliish has another sign "Chien" in French. Therefore they mean the same thing but different names are attributed to it in various languages.
Of course, all natural languages belong to the same semiotic system. The linguistic system is linked to linguistic markers framed by sounds and their significance, but the semiotic system depends on linguistic and non-linguistic markers of the semiotic system in languages based on the extent to which human languages absorb the semiotic sphere around them symbols, signs, indicators and icons, meaning that natural languages can describe a visible world around them. Through a linguistic system.
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