ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with some crucial semiotic transformations underlying the inventions of writing. Drawing on Malafouris's material engagement theory from 2013, the chapter works on the transition from the expressive to the denotative nature of the sign, analyzing it through Umberto Eco's theory of modes of sign production in 1975, claiming that the semiotic transformation involved in the inventions of writing has nothing to do with a passage from icons to symbols. Indeed, the article highlights how this transition is made possible by what Peirce calls ‘diagrammatic thinking’ – the ability to identify and construct forms of relations among heterogeneous elements. The paper demonstrates how, through the material properties exhibited by expressive signs, it is possible to extract the diagrammatic relations that enable the emergence of denotative signs. Through material engagement, the sign can thus become a graphic occurrence expressing content based on the code stipulated by writing.
