Saussure’s Theory of Value from Peirce’s Semiotic Perspective: A Comparative Study of the Concepts of Linguistic Value and Thirdness

The conceptions of sign in Saussure and in Peirce are consideredincomparable because of the dyadic and the triadic components of signrespectively: the two components comprising signifer and signified andthe three components comprising sign, object, and interpretant. Actually,however, Saussure’s inchoate ideas about linguistic value can be comparedwith the concept of interpretant in Peirce. This paper examines the possiblecomparison of the two concepts based on the phenomenon of representationof generality in the linguistic sign, with the hypothesis that there are twopossible concepts of generality which are based on conventionality andcontinuity in Saussure and in Peirce, respectively. The paper will develop the argument on discussing Saussure’s conceptsof identities, realities and values with an interlocking relation of the three. The paper thus argues that the concept of linguistic value has commonground with the concept of interpretant based on Thirdness in Peirce’stheory of category as mediation between sign and object; however, thetwo conceptions of linguistic value and Thirdness differ in terms of thedyadic structure of language as a form and the triadic concept in semiosisas evolution of language. In assessing this I will look into the ontologyof collection with type and token in Peirce’s conception of sign, thusexplaining how conventionality is related to abstraction for creative thinking based on value in similarity rather than that in identity. Consequently, this idea leads to evolution of language by valuationinstead of static value in the linguistic system. Ultimately, the conceptsof linguistic value and Thirdness share the common feature of connectednessin the form of mediation between sign and object. But the dimensionof study of sign is derived from different interests and concerns fromeach of these. One concerns only linguistic form and the other concernssemiosis in evolution of language in teleological development. Naturally,it is this delimitation that causes the sign study to proceed in differentdirections.