Reprezentacja w semiotyce
Representation in semiotics

Summary/Abstract: Representation is one of the central issues in semiotics and, in fact, it is among the strongest notions that portray signification. Particularly, the verbs signify, convey and express – much used in musical aesthetics (see Roger Scruton) – are softer examples of the case. In existential semiotics we can say that pre-signs have to ‘ripen’ in order to ‘mature’ to be represented as signs. What is involved is naturally also the eternal opposition between realism and nominalism. To the latter school, the problem is almost non-existant following the slogan ‘Il n’y a pas salut hors de texte’. Yet the whole panorama of various theories of representation can be followed through the history of semiotics. In the handbook of semiotics by Winfried Nöth it is even asked whether there are signs which represent nothing. John Deely says that concepts represent, but words signify. Representation was dealt with in cybernetics and then in cultural semiotics, beginning from Michel Foucault and his study Le mots et le choses (The Order of Things), an inquiry into classical representation in the European context. Representation can also be seen in the light of the Z model of existential semiotics and various cases of its representation as sign practices can be discerned.

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