On discovering the semiotic organization of experience

the public meanings and private meanings of objects

pp. 165-169

in: Michael Herzfeld, Margot D. Lenhart, Semiotics 1980, Berlin, Springer, 1982

Abstract

Seemingly overwhelming problems in the study of meaning, reality realms, the organization of experience, and other related matters hinge on some fundamental scientific misconceptions about the nature of the phenomena in question. The purpose of the research that forms the basis of this paper is to discover fundamental principles that lend organization to daily human experience through the elicitation of freely associated verbal reports. Theoretical implications of the analysis have a direct bearing on theory building and the necessary relationship between method and theory in semiological inquiry. 1