论意义三分之形成:回顾皮尔斯与维尔比的讨论

The Birth of Triads of Meaning:Revisiting the Correspondence between Peirce and Lady Welby

皮尔斯曾与英国女学者维尔比夫人有着长达9年(1903-1911)的学术通信往来,主要就符号与意义理论,特别是意义三分模式,展开持续且深入的讨论。二者的符号学与表意学不约而同地强调:符号表意之目的在于解释,进而获致得体的意义,因此符号学就是意义学。而处理这个核心问题的基本框架,就是细致分析符号意义的三分关系。这场讨论意义深远,它既印证了意义是符号学的中心问题,标志着20世纪初意义理论大潮的涌起,同时也开创了以意义解释为中心的符号学三元动态模式。这一模式被视为当今符号学的"大传统",至今引领符号学运动前进的方向。

The correspondence between Charles Peirce and Victoria Lady Welby lasted as long as nine years(1903-1911),during which they engaged in in-depth discussion about the theories of signs and meaning,and especially the triads of meaning.Whilst constructed independently,Peirce’s semiotics and Welby’s significs both emphasise that the goal of signification is to interpret,clarify and then adequately realise the meaning of signs.Hence,semiotics is essentially the study of meaning,and the fundamental approach is to elaborate on the triadic relations of meaning.This correspondence is of great importance and should be revisited,not only because both Peirce and Welby regarded "meaning" as the core of semiotics,announcing the beginning of meaning theories in the early 20th century,but also because they co-founded the triad model of semiotics,which is regarded as the "major tradition" in semiotic studies today.