ABSTRACT
The lexicon of a language consists of many kinds of signs other than nouns. To semioticians, a defining feature of signs is that they are treated by their users as 'standing for' or representing other things. The academicians adopt the philosophical stance of naïve verbal realism in assuming that words simply mirror objects in an external world. According to the referential theory of language there is a one-to-one correspondence between word and referent, and language is simply a nomenclature – an item-by-item naming of things in the world. Referential realists would be quick to interpret this as linguistic relativism: the notion that different worlds are constructed in different cultures, societies, and languages. Critics argue that making inferences about differences in worldview solely on the basis of differences in linguistic structure is a form of linguistic idealism. Peirce adopted from logic the notion of 'modality' to refer to the truth value of a sign, acknowledging three kinds: actuality, necessity, and possibility.
