Social life and law

pp. 9-17

in: Jan Broekman, Frank Fleerackers, Legal signs fascinate, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

Social life is life spoken. Speech acts appear of central importance in studying law, as semiotics underline. Law is multidimensional, lawyers speak everyday language and legal language and the meaning of their words is seldom restricted to one level of significance. Is Law's discourse a different manifestation of linguistic expressiveness? Signs in law reinforce and enrich social life while introducing new dimensions of meaning. This was Greimas' important contribution to semiotics, as we understand. It was also the reason why Lyotard unfolded his theory of narratives, once confronted with law in post-modernity. Those insights in what Kevelson named the n-dimensionality of meaning and significance in life widens the forces of freedom to create commonness.