Abstract

Following my previous paper, common features are noted in the definitions of a sign and a trope. Four types of signs are modelled in relation to Vico’s four Master Tropes. The limitations of Jakobson’s discussion of language using only two tropes are recognized alongside the benefits of his implied extension of these two signs into larger structures beyond the level of single words. Fiske’s use of the four Bourbaki mathematical structures offers a formal parallel between the language of scientific measurement scales and that of textual analysis in the humanities. It is proposed that Hayden White’s work can be extended into the semiotic level, using proto-grammar as the equivalent organizing principle. Plausible correspondences are observed between four common grammatical cases and the structural rules proposed for the Master Tropes. Judea Pearl’s theory of correlation and causality is considered in relation to the development of signs.

Keywords: Master tropes, Bourbaki structures, Semiotic grammar, Case theory, C.S. Peirce, Structuralist theory