The Contribution of Floyd MERRELL to the Field of Semiotics with Respect to PEIRCE's

Theory

Presented by KESSI Nassima Master II Language and Communication Departement of English University of Mouloud MAMMERI of Tizi-Ouzou Algeria

Aknowledgement 

I would like to acknowledge my use of some notes I took during

the courses of Semiotics given by Dr. Mohamed Sadek FODIL

while I have been a Master II student of Language and

Communication at the university of Mouloud MAMMERI of Tizi-

Ouzou during the academic year 2013/2014.

Introduction

Charles Sanders PEIRCE is considred to be the founder of American Semiotics.

His theroy ot the sign is general as it includes verbal and nonverbal,human and nonhuman signs.

His theory was ignored for a period of time. 

However in the last decades, it got the interest of many scholars, among whom is Flyod MERRELL.

In the present paper I will attempt to present, without pretentending to do justice to the whole of, his contribubtion to the field of semiotics in repect to Peirce's Theory.

Layout of the Paper

For the purpose of the present work, I will devide it into three section. Each section deals with an aspect or a concept related to semiotics. And in each section, I start by presenting PEIRCE's view then MERRELL's.

SECTION 1 : The Scope of Semiotics

As it has been said in the Introduction, PEIRCE's theory is general; anything could be or become a sign if it comes to mean

something to someone.

MERRELL insists on the need for this generality in semiotics.

He argues against the linguocentralist view which as its name suggests limits the study to linguistic signs.

He insists that PEIRCE's semiotics answers this need as it includes icons and indexes, in addition to symbols of which

language is a part as there are other symbols such as the flags.

SECTION 2 : The Definition of The Sign

Charles Sanders PEIRCE defines the sign as something which stands for something to someone in some respect or capacity.

He calls :

- the thing which stands for the other thing the Representamen or simply the Sign ;

-the thing for which the representamen stands the Object ;

-the thing that brings the representamen and the object into relation as well as itself in relation to the two the Interprertant.

MERRELL expresses a reluctance to the term ''stands for'', or as well ''represents'' or ''corresponds to''.

He says that these terms might imply that the relationship of the representamen and its object is static and immediate.

While in fact, as even PEIRCE thought of it, it is not static as no sign remains exactely the same (or means exactly the same) between two instanciations of it.

It is also a relationship of mediation as there is no faithful or direct correspondance between the sign and its object.

To replace the terms he rejects, MERRELL proposes to say that signs interdepedently interrelate and interact with their objects.

SECTION 3 : The Process of Semiosis

This part of the theory is the most complicated.

Semiosis, as floyd MERRELL interpets it from PEIRCE's theory,

is the process by which signs function to make and take

meaning.

It is the interdependently interrelation and interaction between

the three entities of the sign namely the representemanen, the

object and the interpretant, and also between a sign and other

signs and the sign and their makers and takers.

It is more generally an intricate interplay between the three categories of firstness, secondness and thirdness.

As PEIRCE's defined them, theses are the three modes of being under which anything that is in the world exists.

Firrstness is the mode of feelings, of qualities, of abstraction, without there being any consciousness of existence yet.

Secondness is the domain of brute facts, a pure otherness without any awarness of any relation between a first and a second entities.

Thirdness is the mode of being of laws, of habits that brings the first and the second into relation and at the same time brings itself into relation with the two.

MERRELL ilustrates this process by the diagram as shown in Figure 1 below.

Firstness

Secondness Thirdness

Figure 1 : An Illustration of the Process of Semiosis

MERRELL prefers the lines, as shown in Figure 1, over the triangle.

The triangle shows more a triad of three dyads, as if two entities making up the sign can come into relation without necessarily

needing the third entity.While the lines show clearly that any relationship includes the all

of the three entities.Moreover, that way, the entities come into relation with each other

in the same way, without any relation being moreimportant than another.

Another advantage of the lines is that they allow for any of the three entities to take the place of another in the process of signs

becoming other signs.This means that the interpretant of a given sign can become the representamen of another sign, and this process goes on and on

ad infinitum.

Conclusion

I attempted throughout this paper to present the contribution of Floyd MERRELL to the field of semiotics with respect to PEIRCE's theory.

I devided the work into three sections. Each section deals with an aspect or concept in the field of the doctrine of signs.

I started by scope of semiotics that PEIRCE's theory extended to the study of all kind of signs. MERRELL insists on the need for this generality and argues against the linguocentrist views restricting their study to the study of linguistic signs.

I went on to present the definition of the object of the study of semiotics, namely the sign. PEIRCE defines the sign to be something which stands for something to someone in some respect or capacity.

MERRELL on that point, expresses a reluctance to the term

''standing for'' or its substitutes ''corresponding'' and ''representing''.

He prefers speaking in terms of interdenpendently intrelation and interaction between the three entities making up the sign.

He justifies his preference for this expression as it indicates that the relation of the sign to its object is more dynamic to allow the sign to be different in different contexts to different semiotic agents.

Finally, discussed the clarifications Merrell brought about concerning the process of semiosis as the interpay between firstness secondness and thirdness to engeder and process meaning. Merrell, through the illustrative figure shed light on the triadicity and democraticity of Peirce's analysis of semiosis.

Bibliography

Floyd MERRELL  :

Peirce,Signs, and Meaning. Toronto  : University of

Toronto Press. 1997.

Semiology meets Semiotics  : A Case of Lingering

Linguicentrism  ?, avaible  :

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fmerrell/linguicentrism.htm,

[17/03/2014].

Lotmans' Semiosphere, Peirce's Categories, and Cultural Forms of life. Avaible  : http://www-1.ut.ee/SOSE/sss/pdf/merrell292.pdf, [11/03/2014].

Charles Sanders Peirce's Concept of the Sign in  : Cobley, P.

(ed.)  : Semiotics and Llinguistics. London, Routledge. 2001