Re: SUO: Re: Re: Monosemy, Semantics, and Natural Language

["John F. Sowa" <sowa@bestweb.net>]

Pat,

Another way to put it is that anything and
everything is a potential sign.  Whether it is
considered as a sign depends on how somebody
interprets it.

PC> I take it that the act of interpretation
 > causes physical phenomena to acquire the status
 > of a "sign"?   In that case smoke rising from
 > a fire would not be a sign unless there is some
 > cognitive agent that notices it?

It's like a meadow, which is a potential camping
ground whether or not anybody ever sees it.
But when somebody decides to use it as such,
it becomes a camping ground.

The word "potential" is important.

John