Education Quarterly Reviews
ISSN 2621-5799
Published: 04 May 2022
The Development of Pragmatics in Morris’s Behavioral Semiotics: Semiotic Perspective
Min Niu, Thawascha Dechsubha
Shinawatra University, Thailand
Download Full-Text Pdf
10.31014/aior.1993.05.02.482
Pages: 216-225
Keywords: Pragmatics, Pragmaticism, Semiotics, Peirce, Morris
Abstract
Many pragmaticists claimed that pragmatics developed mainly from 1970s and 1980s, taking the emergence of its series of pragmatic theories (e.g., Cooperative Principle, Conversation Implicature, Relevance Theory, etc.), methodology, and the official issue of Journal of Pragmatics (1977) in Amsterdam as its marks. However, few scholars reinstate the historical truth of the real development of pragmatics by comparing and reviewing the semiotic thoughts between Peirce and Morris so as to discover the development and prosperity of pragmatics in Morris’s times (around 1930s). As one of the founders of modern semiotics, Morris’s major contribution derives from his proposal of trichotomy theory of semiosis, that is, syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics, grounded on which Morris intends to establish an all-inclusive general theory of signs. Substantially, Morris’s semiotic theory involves rich pragmatic thought which is inherited and developed from Peirce theory of signs that has logic and pragmaticism as its foundations. This paper aims to reveal the formation and development of pragmatics in Morris’s behavioral semiotics by means of comparing the semiotic thoughts between Peirce and Morris from the perspective of dynamic history. Specifically, this paper involves the analysis of the philosophical foundations of pragmatics, disciplinary classification, the establishment of pragmatics, theory of sign inquiry, the relevant specific semiotic views, and three semiotic dimensions of Morris’s pragmatics, which are conducive to explore the pragmatic origin and development from the perspective of Morris’s semiotic thoughts. As such, Pragmatics in Morris’s behavioral semiotics is established and developed in a systematic and formal way.
References
Arif, Hakim. 2013. A brief sketch on the origin and development of pragmatics. Philosophy and Progress. Vols. LIII-LIV, January-June, July-December, pp.25-42. [DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/pp.v53i1-2.21946].
Caffi, Claudia. 1994. Metapragmatics. In Ronald. E. Asher & J. M. Y. Simpson (eds.). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon, pp. 2461-2465.
Carnap, Rudolf. 1942. Introduction to Semantics. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Eco, Umberto. 1976. A theory of Semiotics. Bloomington, IN.: Indiana University Press.
Feng, Zongxin. 2005. On linguistic metalanguage and metalinguistic studies. Foreign Language Teaching and Research 6, pp. 403-410.
Halliday, Michael. 1978. Language as social semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.
Huang, Yan. 2007. Pragmatics. Oxford: OUP.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP.
Mey, Jacob. L. 2001. Pragmatics: An Introduction (2nd eds.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Morris, Charles. 1949 [1938]. Foundations of the theory of signs. In Otto Neurath, Rudolf Carnap & Charles W. Morris (eds.), International Encyclopedia of unified science, vol. I–II, pp.1–59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Morris, Charles. 1946. Sign, language and behavior. New York: Prentice-Hall.
Morris, Charles W. 1964. Signification and significance: A study of the relations of signs and values. The Hague: Mouton, p.26.
Morris, Charles. 1971. Writings on the General Theory of Signs. The Hague: Mouton.
Locke, John. 1999[1690]. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University.
Peirce, Charles S. 1931–1958. In Charles Hartshorne & Paul Weiss, Arthur W. Burks (eds.), Collected papers, vol. 1–8, vol. 7–8. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (quoted as CP).
Peirce, Charles S. 1868. Some consequences of four incapacities. The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.140-157.
Peirce, Charles S. 1907. Pragmatism. MS 318:14-5. Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce’s Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. (Quoted as MS).
Petrilli, Susan. 2004. From pragmatic philosophy to behavioral semiotics: Charles W. Morris after Charles S. Peirce. Semiotica. 2004 (148), pp. 277-315. [DOI: http://10.1515/semi.2004.011].
Recanati, François. 2004. Pragmatics and semantics. In: L.R. Horn, G.Ward(eds.), The handbook of pragmatics. Black-well Publishing, Oxford, pp.442-462.
Rochberg-Halton, Eugene & McMurtrey, Kevin. 1983. The foundations of modern Semiotic: Charles Peirce and Charles Morris. American Journal of Semiotics,Vol. 2, Nos. 1-2 (1983), pp.129-156. [https://philarchive.org/archive/ROCTFO-2].
Saussure, Ferdinand. 1959[1916]. Course in General Linguistics. New York: Philosophical Library.
Silverstein, Michael.1976. Shifers, linguistic categories, and cultural description. In K. Basso & H. Selby (eds.). Meaning in Anthropology. Albuquerque N. M.: University of New Mexico Press, pp.11-55.
Sturrock, John. 2003. Structuralism(2nd eds.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Tarski, Alfred.1936/2002. On the concept of following logically, trans. M. Stroinska & D. Hitchcock, History and Philosophy of Logic 23, pp.155-196.
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1991. Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.