2.1 A Historical Review of Semiotics

Western linguistic studies have been carried out since ancient Greece, the famous Greek philosopher Socrates (BC 470-BC 399), Plato (BC 429-BC 347) and Aristotle (BC 384-BC322) laid the philosophical foundation for language research through the debate on language. And they are also early precursors of semiotics. Plato tried to figure out the origin of language through his dialogue with his friend Cratylus. 

Tracing back to the earliest sign of the thoughts of semiotics, ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates (BC 460-BC 377) writes professional papers and collects many case of illness. What’s more, he is the first to describe diseases and medical conditions. His descriptions of the symptomatology, physical findings, surgical treatment and prognosis can be considered as the earliest medical signs. Since the word “sign” used today means symptom in ancient Greece, Hippocrates is called the father of semiotics in the Western. However, the theory of Hippocrates is more about natural sign, not about artificial sign, which means there is no arbitrariness of sign. In the strict sense, we cannot regard Hippocrates’s prognosis as a sign.