The Peircean Sign as a Model for Interpreting Semiotic Structures in Mandarin Chinese

• 作者: Steven Bonta
• 来源期刊: 语言与符号学研究
• 学科: 文学
• 关键词: Charles Sanders Peirce linguistic semiotics Chinese linguistics semiotic structures SEMIOTICS semiotic systems Peircean categories
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（1）
• 页码范围: 1-30
• 页数: 30页
• 分类号: H1

摘要

The notion that language is a system of signs is explored in the context of Mandarin Chinese.We use the Peircean Sign,derived from the Peircean ontological categories Firstness,Secondness,and Thirdness,as an interpretive framework.Because Mandarin Chinese is both well-documented and comparatively opaque to foreign influences,it presents an ideal case study for the formation of semiotic structures based on the operation of a single Peircean Category-sign(in contrast to English,which,with much higher levels of foreign contact-induced change,would be expected to involve a broad mixture of various semiotic influences).We examine semiotic structures in Chinese at the featural/phonological,lexical,and morphosyntactic levels,as well as the inventory of written characters.We conclude that the primary constraint that conditions semiotic structures in Chinese is the Peircean category Firstness of Secondness/[12].We also show how this conditioning constraint imposes a semiotic and structural consistency across different levels of language,and how it helps to explain certain evolutionary characteristics of Chinese.