THE CONCEPT OF GENERATION AND THE SENSORY EMERGENCE OF MEANING

Abstract

The article discusses concepts that have enabled the development of greimassian semiotics and explores the relationship between theory of signification and phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty. Semiotics theory develops concepts to examine the various manifestations of language and incorporates studies based on phenomenology. The concept of body is essential in phenomenological thought, because the physical phenomena are perceived by body sensations. This paper presents the concepts of generation and conversion, proposed by Greimas, and discusses the relationship between greimassian concepts and the phenomenological concept of perception. According to this semiotic perspective, man recognizes existence of physical phenomena by physiological senses, that perceive stimuli both internal and external to the body. Thus, it is understood that linguistic experience is linked to sensory-motor activity, so semiotics emphasizes the role of perception in production of meanings and it enables the analysis of signification in process, which is understood as a relationship between sensory tensive fields of sight and apprehension. The text shows the influence of phenomenology in conceptual development of discursive semiotics, especially tensive semiotics, proposed by Zilberberg and Fontanille.