< previous page page_214 next page >

Page 214
(iii) in the course of this semiosic process the socially recognized meaning of expressions grows through the interpretations they undergo in different contexts and in different historical circumstances;
(iv) the complete meaning of a sign cannot but be the historical recording of the pragmatic labor that has accompanied every contextual instance of it;
(v) to interpret a sign means to foreseeideallyall the possible contexts in which it can be inserted. Peirce's logic of relatives transforms the semantic representation of a term into a potential text (every term is a rudimentary proposition and every proposition is a rudimentary argument). In other words, a sememe is a virtual text and a text is an expanded sememe.
2.2. Deixis
It must be added that Peirce suggests that a logic of relatives (that is, a context, hence a text-oriented semantics) can be developed not only for categorematic but also for syncategorematic terms such as prepositions and adverbs. This proposal was first advanced by Augustine (De Magistro) and has been recently reconsidered by contemporary authors such as Leech (1969) and Apresjan (1962).
In Eco 1976 (2.11.5) and 1984 (2.3), I have proposed a semantic model for the representation of the ideal content of indices (be they words, gestures, or images) in an ideal situation of actual reference.
2.3. Contexts and Circumstances
A context-oriented semantics frequently takes the form of an instructional semantics (see Schmidt 1973, and, for the relationship between pragmatics and instructional semantics, Schlieben-Lange 1975). See also Greimas (1973), according to whom a given semantic unit such as "fisher" in its very sememic structure is a potential narrative program: "Le pêcheur porte en lui, évidemment, toutes les possibilités de son faire, tout ce que l'on peut s'attendre de lui en fait de comportement; sa mise en isotopie discursive en fait un rôle thématique utilisable pour le récit . . . "(174).
In my previous works (1976), I proposed to distinguish context from circumstance. The context is the environment where a given expression occurs along with other expressions belonging to the same sign system. A circumstance is the external situation where an expression, along with its context, can occur. Later (1979), I defined as context a series of possible ideal texts that a semantic theory can pre-

 
< previous page page_214 next page >