Analysis of the analysis: semiotic square and tensive graphic

Abstract

In this article we intend to show some of the reasons that support Greimas’ position on Philosophy, that is, his refusal to enter the endless discussion about the origin of meaning. He was not interested, for exemple, in explaining the ultimate meaning of the syntactic structures that he created, whether they were inherent in the object or embedded in the cognitive apparatus of the subject, but, starting from epistemological assumptions “few and as general as possible”, he was interested in proceeding with the formulation of strategies of minimum structuring through signification. Then, we aim to show that the semiotic square assumes a relevant role as a strategy of manipulation of meaning via signification and that the tensive graph is schematically an extension to the exclusive issue of the term complex.