Even in the most naïve sense, without qualification, the term

poses great difficulties. The word designates any thing, whether gesture, mark, token, symbol or even natural event, that expresses, indicates or refers to a meaning or to something else. Yet even that most general and innocent statement offers at best a futile answer, as if to a question that already presupposes it: “what does the word

de

ate?” The presupposition of a prior meaning infects all interpretations of the word

, which is always thus figured as a latecomer, standing in for something, a thing or a concept that precedes it. But the concept

, if it does refer back to a prior meaning, refers back only to itself—that which means something other than itself.

In the nineteenth century, the

1989 words

Citation: Phillips, John, Chrissie Tan. "Sign, The". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 May 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1012, accessed 23 November 2024.]