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Words thus equal things (or rather the sensations which Adam and Eve are aware of) and things equal words. This makes it natural for them to envisage a number of connotative associations such as |
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Evidently this presents us already with a rudimentary use of metaphor, based on the possibility of extrapolating from metonymic chains of the type (3), and constitutes an embryonic inventive use of language. The inventiveness shown in this operation is still minimal because all the chains involve known elements, which have been fully explored, this semiotic universe being so diminutive both in the form of its content and in its expressive possibilities. |
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Any judgment which Adam and Eve pass on the universe is automatically bound to be a semiotic judgment, which is equivalent to calling it a judgment inside the normative cycle set up by the semiosis. It is true that they also pronounce factual judgments of the kind /. . . red/ when, for example, they find themselves confronted by a cherry. But this kind of factual information is exhausted instantly, since there is no linguistic mechanism for uttering /. . ./, and therefore this sensation is not susceptible of formal insertion into their referential system. Ultimately, judgments of this sort can only generate tautology, because the cherry, once it is perceived and denoted as /red/, prepares the ground for evaluative statements such as /red is red/ or, alternatively, /red is good/, which had already been rendered homologous by the system, as we saw above in (3). We are entitled to assume that they can point at things with their fingers, that is, use physical gestures to designate an object to the other person, which is the equivalent of /this/. In much the same way, the shifter /I/ or /you/ or /he/ is added to any statement by means of pointed fingers designed to function as pronouns. Hence the statement /ABBBBBA. ABA/ means, if accompanied by two stabbing gestures with the finger, 'I eat this red'. But no doubt Adam and Eve perceive those indexical devices as nonlinguistic ones: they consider them as existential qualifiers or circumstantial arrows used for referring a message (meaningful in itself) to an actual object or situation. |
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3.2. Formulation of the First Factual Judgment with Semiotic Consequences |
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Adam and Eve have only just settled down in the Garden of Eden. They have learned to find their way around with the help of languagewhen |
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