The research on writings: a dialogue between Linguistics, Semiotics and Anthropology

Abstract The research on writings remained for a long time subordinated to Linguistics, following a simplistic representative-phonocentric conception in which writing was subjected to language. This position is now unsustainable. Due to the encounter between Semiotics, Linguistics and Anthropology, the research on writings has been renewed. According to the studies of figurative and plastic semiotics, imagery has been reintroduced in the study of writings, as well as the awareness of spatiality. The anthropological approach has shown that writing and its mechanisms present a set of cultural values, being a privileged emplacement for the ideological and symbolic production of a society. Linguistics has therefore opened up to other disciplines, now considering writing as a pluri-semiotic continuum that comprises both an iconic dimension and a linguistic dimension.