Semiotics and philosophy
the ontological approach in the semiotics of Algirdas Julius Greimas
pp. 301-309
in: Oana Andreica, Alin Olteanu (eds), Readings in numanities, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
While researching the genesis of Algirdas Julius Greimas' semiotic method, it becomes evident that the problem of the relationship between semiotics and philosophy (especially phenomenology) becomes crucial. In his description of the generation and production of signification Greimas distanced himself from the ontological description of meaning, asserting that semiotics aims to deliver a structural description of it. Therefore, while he admits that in its analysis of the existence, origins and perception of meaning semiotics enters the realm of philosophy, the very method of description separates it from philosophy. In my article I propose that some of the implications of epistemological semiotic description of meaning in Greimasian semiotics encompass its ontological dimension. I assert that the description of the modalization of being when the pre-modal structure (the thymic space) is examined raises the question of how a living being exists. I also note that the description of the double nature of discourse in the semiotics of passions employs the same scheme of the modalization of being.
