Peircean Wordy Terms

[Frances Kelly]

These threaded messages on a subject entitled "Semeiotics of Facebook" were
recently posted to the Peirce List by its members, and may be of some interest
to Aesthetic List members here.
-Frances

In a section that the editors of the "Collected Papers" called
"Ethics of Terminology" Peirce wrote:

CP2-223:  The ideal terminology will differ somewhat for different
sciences. The case of philosophy is very peculiar in that it has
positive need of popular words in popular senses--not as its own
language (as it has too usually used those words), but as objects of
study. It thus has a peculiar need of a language distinct and
detached from common speech, such a language as Aristotle, the
scholastics, and Kant endeavored to supply, while Hegel endeavored to
destroy it. It is good economy for philosophy to provide itself with
a vocabulary so outlandish that loose thinkers shall not be tempted to
borrow its words. ... The first rule of good taste in writing is to
use words whose meanings will not be misunderstood; and if a reader
does not know the meaning of the words, it is infinitely better that
he should know he does not know it.  This is particularly true in
logic. which wholly consists, one might almost say, in exactitude of
thought.
CP2-224: "The sciences which have had to face the most
difficult problems of teminology have unquestionably been the
classificatory sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology."

"Semeiotic" became for Peirce a classificatory term.  Here is a
paragraph from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Peirce's settled opinion was that logic in the broadest sense is to be
equated with semeiotic (the general theory of signs), and that logic
in a much narrower sense (which he typically called blogical
criticb) is one of three major divisions or parts of semeiotic. Thus,
in his later writings, he divided semeiotic into speculative grammar,
logical critic, and speculative rhetoric (also called
bmethodeuticb). Peirce's word bspeculativeb is his Latinate
version of the Greek-derived word btheoretical,b and should be
understood to mean exactly the word btheoretical.b Peirce's
tripartite division of semeiotic is not to be confused with Charles W.
Morris's division: syntax, semantics, and pragmatics (although there
may be some commonalities in the two trichotomies).

In CP2.226 Peirce states "rules which I find to be binding upon me in
this field". Here are several.
First. To take pains to avoid following any recommendations of
an arbitrary nature as to the use of philosophical terminology.
Second. To avoid using words and phrases of vernacular origin as
technical terms of philosophy.
Third. To use the scholastic terms in their anglicized forms for
philosophical conceptions, so far as they are strictly applicable; and
never to use them in other than their proper senses.
Fourth. For ancient philosophical conceptions overlooked by the
scholastics, to imitate as well as I can, the ancient expression.
Sixth. For philosophical conceptions which vary by a hair's
breadth from those for which suitable terms exist, to invent terms
with a due regard for the usages of philosophical terminology and
those of the English language but yet with a distinctly technical
appearance.
Seventh. To regard it as needful to introduce new systems of
expression when new connections of importance between conceptions come
to be made out, or when such systems can, in any way, positively
subserve the purposes of philosophical study.

>> Peirce also used the bsb form of the word bsemioticsb, and
>> so onebs arguing for the spelling bsemioticb over its bsb-
>> form counterpart as being somehow more genuinely Peircean is
>> simply bogus. Also, Max Fischbs prescribed spelling and
>> pronunciation of this  word are preposterous. As any linguist
>> knows, and Fisch was no linguist, each language has its own
>> phonological and morphological rules that govern  pronunciation and
>> grammatical derivation. Furthermore, as Luigi Romeo has clearly
>> pointed out in his article on the subject, referenced below, the
>> source of the English word bsemioticsb has a much more complex
>> and nuanced  history, one with as much Latin influence, both
>> phonetic and orthographic, as Greek, than most prescriptivists
>> like Fisch understand. And as I explained in  my original post on
>> the subject last year, the modern English derivational morpheme
>> bsb, which originally grew out of the plural but is now
>> grammatically  distinct from it, was in the middle of its evolution
>> during Peircebs day (which accounts for his own use of the two
>> variants). Peirce also used the  nominal form beconomicb, but no
>> competent speaker of English today would go  around saying bI
>> study economicb. The bsb morpheme that indicates the
>> substantive is now necessary b thus, beconomicsb. And the word
>> blinguisticsb follows the same pattern, as should
>> bsemioticsb. The reason why the words  brhetoricb and
>> blogicb remain exceptions in modern English is because their
>> entry into the lexicon is much older and more continuous throughout
>> the centuries, and thus they were already fully entrenched in
>> common usage before the substantive bsb morpheme came into
>> prominence during the  nineteenth-century. And as far as the
>> additional beb in the archaic spelling  bsemeiotic(s) is
>> concerned, it is totally unnecessary. It also smacks, in my
>> opinion, of a false and pretentious elitism.
>> In conclusion then the best choice today is the form
>> bsemioticsb and the corresponding bsemiosisb.

>>> Peirce used various forms of the word(s) "semiotic," "semeiotic".
>>> Insofar as there are  multiple semiotic theories, "semiotics" is
>>> natural enough, but it also makes  sense to speak of a single
>>> semiotic, e.g., Peirce's semiotic. As for the  extra "e" in
>>> "semeiotic," it's not necessary.
>>> Just a detail - a small one - but still - if you use Peirce's
>>> preferred way of spelling then it is semeiotic not semeiotics as
>>> Fisch  points out in Peirce`s General Theory of Signs (p.321-356):
>>> "For...the art or science or doctrine or general theory of
>>> semiosises he uses semeiotic...To tell us how to pronounce his
>>> preferred  form, he marks it semeioB4tic (Ms 318:52)...Both the
>>> spelling and the  pronunciation should...be signs of etymology;
>>> that is, should make it  evident that the derivation is from
>>> Greek. (Fisch 1986:322)