Abstract

This paper attempts to state that the semiotic movement will obtain a new momentum in the globalization era if a more desirable strategy could be widely adopted. First of all, it should equally include both European-American and non-European-American academic/cultural traditions; it should be also engaged in the current remoulding process of all social/human sciences; especially, semiotics will hopefully become one of the theoretical bases for reorganizing and reforming the entire humanities. Signs have been the central conceptual units used for the study of meaning in semiotic history. While for the past decades the study of meaning has expanded more and more to the scope of the structure and formation of the entire humanities. Accordingly, our concern with the progress of semiotics today is closely linked to the general endeavor to promote the development of human sciences. In essence semiotics can be regarded today as one of the main gateways to the epistemological and methodological modernization of human sciences across all cultural traditions. Regarding this goal, the main object-domain of semiotic operation will be naturally shifted from the actual world (where signs appear) to the academic discourses (where multiple semantic units appear). The cross-cultural semiotics will certainly further strengthen this tendency.