--- abstract: "Language is the type of semiosis which has been most closely examined and which has served as a model for considering other forms of semiosis. Semiotics has been based, certainly in the case of language, very much on the proposition of Saussure that the sign is arbitrary - a questionable idea (Holdcroft 1991) - and that the sign is conventional or social. If this fundamental idea of semiotics, and linguistics, is discarded, what does this do for semiotics, the 'science' of signs ? This paper seeks to trace out the implications for semiotics of a very different account from Saussure's of the origin, development and functioning of language, leaving it open whether one should conclude, in the light of this, that language does not constitute a paradigm or model for a general science of semiotics (and is not a typical or useful example of a semiotic system) or that language should be treated as the paradigm but a totally changed paradigm, so that the new view of language will require a restructuring of semiotics and lead to a much more biological and indeed neurological approach to the science of signs. " altloc: - http://www.percepp.demon.co.uk/semiosis.htm chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Allott given: Robin honourific: '' lineage: '' date: 1994 date_type: published datestamp: 2003-08-16 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/31/13 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: - family: Nöth given: Winfried honourific: '' lineage: '' eprint_status: archive eprintid: 3113 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/3113/1/semiosis.htm full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: pub issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: 'semiotics, language, Peirce, Saussure, Barthes, motor theory,perception, sign systems' lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:20 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: ~ pagerange: 255-268 pubdom: FALSE publication: 'Origins of Semiosis: Sign Evolution in Nature and Culture' publisher: Mouton de Gruyter refereed: TRUE referencetext: | Allott, Robin 1989 The Motor Theory of Language Origin. Lewes: Book Guild. Holdcroft, David 1991 Saussure: Signs, System and Arbitrariness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Koch, Walter A. (ed.) 1989 Culture and Semiotics. Bochum: Brockmeyer. Kristeva, Julia 1969 Semeiotike: Recherches pour une sémanalyse. Paris: Seuil. Locke, John 1706 [1972] An essay concerning human understanding. (5th edition.) [1972] 2 vols. London: Dent Morris, Charles 1946 Signs, Language and Behavior. New York: Prentice-Hall. Peirce, Charles S. 1931-1958 Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. 8 vols. Eds. Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss and Arthur W. Burks. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Peirce, Charles S. 1982 Writings. Vol. I (1857-1865). Ed. Max H. Fisch et al. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Pinxten, Rik 1989 "Culture and Semiotics", in: Walter A. Koch (ed.), 34-35. Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1916 [1966] Course in General Linguistics. [Trans. Wade Baskin.] New York: McGraw-Hill. relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:48:28 subjects: - ling-sem succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: Language and the origin of semiosis type: bookchapter userid: 4227 volume: ~