Percezione semantica e fasi del senso: interesse semiotico di una teoria delle forme semantiche / Semantic Perception and Layers of Meaning: Semiotics' Interest in a Theory of Semantic Forms

Abstract

In this talk I present some results of my master thesis, in which I tried to prepare the ground for a connection between semiotics and a theory of semantic forms, that I consider here as the conceptual framework resulting from the integration of François Rastier’s morphosemantics and the proposals of the research program initiated by Pour une théorie des formes sémantiques (the seminal work by Cadiot and Visetti). I start form stressing the significance of the notion, at first proposed by Rastier, of semantic perception: I will consider three paradoxes that it implies, and I will show the semiotic interest of its two possible senses. I then present the articulation in three layers, or phases of stabilization, of the specific proposal of Cadiot and Visetti. I will focus in particular on the layer of motifs, the most original one, characterized by structural instability and figural trasponibility. I will show that, despite being in part a principle of unification of lexical diversity, motifs cannot be assimilated to other ‘semasiological’ objects that have been rightly criticized by Rastier. Finally, I consider some actual limits of this proposal, that could be overcome by adopting a fully semiotic encyclopaedic point of view.