Structure and structuralism in philosophy of language and semiotics

Structuralism covers a broad range of different tendencies in different disciplines over the entire twentieth century. The term structuralism is plurivocal: it is used for different trends from a variety of different scientific fields and may even diverge on the theoretical and methodological levels. This essay examines some of the main trends in structuralism not only in linguistics, but beyond in other areas of research on language and signs, including philosophy of language through to latest developments in semiotics, and most recently biosemiotics. A critical approach to structuralism is proposed for the development of critical structuralism involving such problematics as Marxian proto-structuralism; the intersemiotic transposition of semiotic approaches to linguistic and socio-cultural structures; ontological structuralism and methodological structuralism; the human being as a semiotic animal and a structuralist animal.