|
|
|
|
|
|
gemitu columbam vocat, vel ab ea vicissim vocatur." However, Augustine remains doubtful about the nature of such an animal intention. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The problem will be solved originally by Abelard. In his Dialectica his classification of signs can be traced back to the Boethian one and divides voces significativae between these signifying naturaliter and these signifying ex impositione (by convention). In the Summa Ingredientibus Abelard adds a new opposition: the one between voces significativae and voces significantes, and this opposition is given by the difference between speaking ex institutione or sine institutione (see figure 7.4). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The institutio is not a convention (like the impositio); it is rather a decision which precedes both the human convention and the natural meaningfulness of animal sounds. One can see this "institution" as very close to an intention. Words are meaningful by virtue of the institution of the human will which orders them ad intellectum constituendum (to produce something, perhaps less than a concept, as Augustine maintained, in the mind of the hearer). The bark of the dog has equally some meaning, even though a natural one, and the institution (the intentionality) of his expression is provided by God, or by nature. In this sense the bark is as significativus as a human word. And in this sense it must be distinguished by these phenomena, which are only significantia and therefore merely symptomatic. The same bark can be emitted ex institu- |
|
|
|
|
|