ABSTRACT
Since its birth merely decades ago, modern semiotics has been undertaking a search for its origins. What was really at stake was a search for the identity of the discipline, a search that was expected to be conducted through a critical evaluation of the operative concepts already employed. A comparison between the modern notions of semiotics and those which marked the beginnings of the discipline was, and is, indeed, considered also a valid way to see the former established on a solid basis. But we must be ready to accept that the comparison between the modern concepts of semiotics – and mostly the concept of ‘sign’ – and those notions which marked the beginnings of semiotics might lead to a radical change in the current paradigm.
