ABSTRACT
The science of the sign is dominated by two theorists: Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce. In the semiology – that ‘science which studies the role of signs as part of social life’ – of Saussure, the sign is made of two component parts, the signifier and the signified. In linguistics, the term ‘deictic’ (or deixis, from the Greek for ‘to show’ or ‘reference’) is used to describe words like ‘here’, ‘there’, ‘that’, ‘this’, or phrases like ‘next Wednesday’ or ‘her mother’. In order to gain the communicative meaning of the linguistic utterance, the hearer must know the context external to the speech phrase. Rather than repeating the specific name of a person, most languages use pronouns once the context is established. The most well documented and comprehensive case study that allows us to explore the relation between the indexical qualities of objects and relations in the lived-in world, is the kula of Papua New Guinea.
