Signifier as Signified: Predictive Concept of Semiosis of the Phonetic Plan of Speech

Abstract

The subject of the article is the prognostic concept of semiosis of the phonetic plan of speech. Interpretation of a signifier is considered as an act of its predictive recoding, the result of which is the phonetic appearance of the word perceived by the addressee. Based on the position that language and speech are two sides of speech activity, the relationship between which can be described by relations of predictive interpretation, the article formulates the idea of the presence of interpretative – predictive algorithms for encoding the signifier in the language. Reduction and assimilation are con-sidered as such algorithms. The interpretation of these processes in modern linguistics is reduced to the statement of positional changes in phonemes in the speech flow. The positional principle in this approach becomes a sound law. Howevr, the law is a statement of regularity, but not an explanation of why this happens. The paper substantiates that these processes are the result of a substantial interpretation inherent in language as a means of communication.