Towards a Semiotics directed by methodology

Abstract

One of persistent difficulties in semiotics is the gap installed between the theoretical speculations and the epistemological reflections, on the one hand, and the methods and the results of data description and interpretation, on the other hand. In order to solve the problem noted, we propose in this paper to invert the natural order of priorities, and to take into consideration that the semiotics should be piloted by the methodology and not by the epistemology directly. To this first position, we add two criteria: (i) the method capability to be able to report the singularity of the analyzed objects, (ii) the articulation of this method with the neighboring disciplines that deal with the same objects. Therefore, our proposition will be articulated in two moments: (1) a detailed examination, in the language theory, of conditions in which is possible, at the same time of the form structuration, to take into account the substantial variations, (2) a reflection, based on results from the first point, about the practical singularity treatment at the interface between the semiotics and the ethno-anthropology. The whole is a contribution in favor of a controlled diversification of methodological regimes in semiotics