符号与物:“人的世界”是如何构成的

Signs and Things:How the World Is Humanized

人居住的世界,即所谓"人化的世界",是充满意义的世界,是物与符号混合的世界。正因为物与符号的共存,它们在与人的关系就呈现了非常复杂的局面。首先,符号的确需要物源,但是符号的载体不一定是物,也可以是物的背景上物的缺失。因此符号可定义为"可以被理解为携带意义的感知"。正因为符号有物源,符号载体可以变成无意义的纯然物,也可以变成没有物使用性的纯符号。在这两者之间,符号也可以带上不同程度的实用意义与非实用意义。因此,人化的世界上所有的物,都是在一系列的功能中变动的"物—符号"双联体。

The world as inhabited by human beings is the world humanized, that is, filled with meaning. The world, a mixture of things and signs, presents itseff to human beings as a complicated picture. First of all, signs have their source in materiality, but the sign vehicles are not necessarily material： it could be vacant, lacking material against the material background. Therefore, the sign should be defined as ＂a perception that could be interpreted as carrying a meaning＂. Because of their materiality, signs could either be reduced to pure things without meaning, or to pure signs that do not possess any ＂usefulness＂. In between the two extremes, signs could acquire different degrees of practical and ＂unpractical＂ meanings. That is why all things in the world are two- fold ＂things - signs＂ whose functions vary.