ABSTRACT
Significs transcends pure descriptivism and emerges as a method for the analysis of signs beyond logical-epistemological limitations. The notion that significs should be concerned with the problem of significance beyond the study of meaning understood in gnoseological terms leads to addressing such issues as the problems of responsibility, freedom, dialectic-dialogic answerability, and the human capacity for creativity and innovation. The “significal method,” or “methodics,” to use Ferruccio Rossi-Landi’s terminology, arises from the special focus achieved by joining the study of sign and meaning to the study of values. Victoria Welby evidenced the relation of signs to values with a particular focus on language — in addition to strictly semantic, syntactical, and linguistic value, she inquired into the ethical, aesthetic and pragmatic dimensions of signifying behavior. Welby investigated the signifying universe in its entirety, though her special interest was expression in the human world, particularly verbal language.
