ABSTRACT

This chapter analyzes the relationship of speech to thought in terms of the interaction of different varieties of sign. This analysis yields a description of semiotic extension. Semiotic extension refers to the process by which the sensory-motor content of syntagmata makes contact with more abstract non-sensory-motor meanings. This process can be viewed as an interaction of signs. The sign vehicle is the word, sentence, sundial, diagram that conveys the meaning of the sign. Symbolic signs also can have iconic signs as sign vehicles. With an iconic sign, the speaker assigns temporal valence to two or more interrelated concepts. The productant of an iconic sign vehicle consists of a rule whereby one orientation is given one temporal valence and the opposite orientation is given the other. The sensory-motor representation is the object of an indexical sign and is the sign vehicle of an iconic or symbolic sign.