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General problems of interdisciplinary research and common mechanisms 51 L
sign@ differs in kind from that of desirability (value) or the structural (or nor-
mative) subordination of one element to the whole to which it belongs. And this
relationship of meaning is again extremely general in scope, so that interdiscipli-
nary problems are as important in this sphere as in the previous ones.
I 5. Biological signalling and semeiotic function
Reactions triggered by indices or signals are to be found at almost all levels of
animal behaviour, ranging all the way from the simple sense-reaction of proto-
plasm in the unicellulars to the sense-reaction of the nervous system or its re-
sponses to meaningful messages. Moreover this type of meaning, linked to signals
or indices, is the only observable one in children until around 12 to 16 months
(sensori-motor levels) and it remains at work in regard to perceptions and motor-
conditioning throughout life. It was therefore necessary to begin by recalling the
r61e of this initial system of signalling.37
Index is the name given to a signifant which is not differentiated from its
signifiP (except by its signalling function), in that it constitutes a part, an aspect
or a causal result of that signifit: a branch protruding over a wall is an index
of the presence of a tree, and the tracks of a hare are the index of its recent
passage. A signal (like the sound of the bell which triggers the salivary reflex in
Pavlov’s dog) is only an index unless there is attached to it a conventional or
social significance (telephone ringing, etc.), in which case it is a ‘sign’.
In some higher primates and in man (from the second year) there appears a
set of signifiants which are differentiated from their sign$& in that they no
longer simply belong to the designated object or event, but are produced by the
subject (individual or collective) with a view to evoking or representing those
signifits, even in the absence of any immediate perceptive stimulus on their
part : such are symbols and signs, and semeiotic (or often, symbolic) function is
the term given to that capacity of evocation by differentiated signifiants which
then makes possible the construction of the image or thought. But there are
two levels still to be distinguished in these semeiotic instruments, although in the
normal child they all appear more or less at the same time (except as a rule in
drawing).
The first level is that of symbols, as the term is used by de Saussure in con-
tradistinction to signs: these are the signifiants ‘motivated‘ by a resemblance or
some analogy with their signif&. They appear in the child in completely spon-
taneous fashion with symbolic (or fictional) play, deferred imitation, the mental
image (or interiorized imitation) and the graphic image. The initial feature of
these symbols is that the individual subject can construct them by himself, al-
though their structuration usually coincides with language (except among the
deaf and dumb who add a new term - gesture language - to the preceding series).
Their common source is imitation, which begins as early as the sensori-motor
level, where it already constitutes a kind of representation, though only in
actions, and then goes on to deferred or interiorized imitations, whence the
preceding symbols.