The place of language among sign systems: Juri Lotman and Émile Benveniste

Abstract

This paper seeks to shed light on an unwritten chapter in the history of Tartu semiotics, that is, to draw a parallel between Juri Lotman and Émile Benveniste on the status of natural language among other systems of signs. The tenet that language works as a ‘primary modelling system’ represents one of the trademarks of the Tartu-Moscow school. For Lotman, the primacy assigned to natural language in respect to other systems of signs lied in the fact that the former functions as a ‘model’ for the latter thus regarded as ‘secondary modelling systems’. Yet how does language carry out its function of being a model for other sign systems? Is language the only primary modelling system? This paper seeks to foster the abovementioned claim of the primacy of natural language and argues that this issue deserves a closer inspection. In order to follow this route, it suggests a parallel between Lotman and Benveniste arguing that there exist several points in common that lead to a convergence of positions between these two remarkable scholars. The paper explores such a possibility, arguing that Lotman’s and Benveniste’s positions open up an interesting debate with specific reference to the relations laid down between language and other system of signs.

Semiosferas Y Límites Geográficos. El Aporte De La Semiótica De La Cultura De Yuri Lotman Al Estudio De Las Identidades Geoculturales

“…El enfoque del semiólogo y teórico de la literatura soviético Yuri M. Lotman se articula sobre el supuesto de que la cultura es un sistema modelizante secundario en la creación de sentido, es decir, una derivación del sistema primario (la lengua), pero que en cualquier caso es capaz de crear modelos del mundo que se transforman en paradigmas que orientan la conducta de individuos y colectivos (Sebeok, 1991). Esta idea, originalmente concebida por sus colegas de la Escuela de Tartu-Moscú (Gramigna, 2013), permitió a Lotman establecer que la semiosfera sería un equivalente cultural a la biosfera, concebida como un espacio complejo en el que se desarrolla toda materia viva. De esta forma, la metáfora de la semiosfera caracteriza a los textos que componen una cultura como dinámicos, interdependientes y organizados jerárquicamente.…”