Hjelmslev, the verbal end the form/icon

What is it about?

According to Hjelmslev the verbal substance is only one of the possible semiotic substances in which the “universal principle of formation” is accomplished. Glossematics is not only a theory of verbal languages but also a theory of language or of the whole semiotic purport. As science of the functions which contains nothing except for its own form, this theory encounters Peircean iconism. The verbality and the linearity of the signifiant therefore lose their pre-eminence: the algebraic alphabet substitutes for the phonetic alphabet. The Résumé of a theory of language is a graphical representation, or a diagrammatical dictionary, and a terminological clarification of such an alphabet. Keywords: algebra; alphabet; glossematics; Hjelmslev; icon; omniformativeness.

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