THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND LINGUISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF SEMIOTICS: THE FORMATION OF A SCIENCE OF SIGNS AND A THEORY OF MEANING

Abstract This study examines the philosophical and linguistic foundations that paved the way for the emergence of semiotics as both a science of signs and a theory of meaning. It is based on the premise that meaning is not a ready-made entity revealed by the sign; rather, it is the product of relations, systems, and interpretation. Accordingly, the history of semiotics can be understood as the history of the transformation of the concept of meaning from reference to difference, from essence to structure, and then from structure to interpretation. This transformation is traced from the etymology of the term and the early insights of ancient and medieval philosophy, through Saussure’s foundational contribution that conceived the sign as a relational value, and Peirce’s project that viewed it as an infinite process, to Roland Barthes’ shift toward a semiotics of signification and Umberto Eco’s openness to interpretation. The study concludes that the problem of reference remains the central obstacle confronting every attempt to close meaning or to provide a complete representation of reality. Keywords: Semiotics, Sign, Signifier and Signified, Immanence, Interpretation, Problem of Reference, Meaning.