Semiotics and Rhetoric: near and far away. A semiotician talks to himself about rhetoric

Abstract

This paper proposes a form of "rhetoric in action" by using the genre of dialogue. A dialogue between the semiotician and himself, questioning the troubled and shady relationship between the young semiotics and the ancient rhetoric. The discussion goes beyond the theoretical criteria of scientificity, ignored here, claimed there, and below the practical criteria of operationality. It concerns the way in which a general theory of language and meaning intends to take up, re-articulate, analyze in a new way and perhaps revitalize the old notions of rhetoric, so rich but sometimes a little frozen, in the light of narrativity, tensivity, figurativity and few other concepts. The dialogue between the two instances of the enunciator thus becomes, we hope, a dialogue between the two disciplines.