ABSTRACT
The conjunction of semiotics and hermeneutics is a difficult space to occupy. A hermeneutic semiology, as I have called it,' is open to criticism from both sides. Advocates of hermeneutics require that one situate oneself in the hermeneutic circle, that one enter into the interpretive activity of meaning production and meaning disclosure. Advocates of semiotics-or semiology as Saussure and Barthes have called it-insist that "unended semiosis" (following Peirce) or "unlimited semiosis" (according to Eco) is the endless chain of sign relations and sign production. The semiotician wants to argue that the proliferation of signs and sign systems goes on irrespective of any interpretive activity. An interpretive semiology, which some-such as the Italian philosopher Carlo Sini2-offer as a complementarity of hermeneutics and semiotics, will have to be practiced in relation to the well-known opposition between hermeneutics and semiotics.
