Never letting go: The search for semiotic universals from Jakobson to biosemiotics
Never letting go: The search for semiotic universals from Jakobson to biosemiotics

Summary/Abstract: Universality is a resounding word. But what does it mean for something in semiotics to be universal? It does not seem uncommon to strive for some sort of universal laws stemming from particular research programs, and semiotics is not the exception (Nöth 1990: 21). However, the sense of universals varies wildly from one perspective to another, and their scarce terminological or philosophical conjunction results in a variety of unverifiable ‘universals’ that can hardly be put together into one specific theory. In general, the lack of a unified theory of semiosis in semiotics (Heusden 2004: 3) does not prevent the existence of many explorations into possible fundamental theoretical pieces that would account for universals. Despite the diverse foci that coexist within semiotics, it is in general semiotics properly that the concept of (semiotic) universals has actual relevance in that we wish to talk about universals that appear throughout semiotics instead of commonalities within a specific area of semiotics, conceding further space to theories that encompass this generality, through either base metaphysical or biological assumptions. In this way, when we talk about universals, we will mostly refer to said semiotic universals in order to avoid having a blanket term here.

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