Aspects of semiosis in evolutionary types of sign systems

The article is dedicated to the examination of the systematic criteria of the interrelation between essential and phenomenological characteristics in evolutionary types of signification. The authors explore aspects of the topic such as the cultural evolution of the sign, namely semiogenetic development, and its communicative evolution, or semiosis, which represents the meaningful filling of the sign within the context of speech usage. Special attention is given to the functional dynamics of conventional and unconditional characteristics of the sign at various stages of its development. The object of the study is the dialectic of the substitutive and referential capacities of the sign, which are in constant contradiction throughout the entire semiogenetic process. The property of alterity is analyzed in detail as a fundamental essential feature of any type of signification that allows the sign to relate to what it is not. The focus is on the gradual displacement of unconditional (natural) qualities of the sign by conventional (artificial) characteristics during the transition from lower forms of cognition to higher ones. The features of functional differentiation of semantics, syntax, and pragmatics in the signal, symbol, and linguistic sign are discussed. The methodological foundation of the research includes semiotic and structural-semantic analysis methods, as well as a critical rethinking of classical theoretical approaches to general semiotics. The theoretical basis of the work is rooted in the foundational writings of Charles S. Peirce, Charles W. Morris, and Ferdinand de Saussure. The novelty of the research lies in the reterminologization of the main evolutionary types of signification and the critical revision of the status of the linguistic sign. The authors replace Charles S. Peirce's terminology with more traditional concepts: the indexical sign is viewed as a signal, and the iconic sign is considered a symbol. A special contribution of the authors to the research topic is the justification of the idea that the linguistic sign is, by its nature, not a symbol; however, in the process of communication, a new kind of subjective and performative "linguistic symbolism" emerges based on it. It is established that the transition from a less perfect to a more perfected type of signification along the chain of semiogenesis is revealed through increasing differentiation of the aspects of semiosis: semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. The replacement of the sign’s substitution function with the function of reference has been proven. The article may be of interest to specialists in the field of semiotics and general theory of language.