Language as a Tool

Abstract

Until now we have viewed the sign as something that represents something else. The relationship between the sign and what it stands for must now be made more specific. First we will follow Karl Bühler, who proposed in 1934 in his epoch-making book Language Theory an organon model of language or, more specifically, of the sign. It is called an organon according to the Platonic principle: language is a tool, an instrumental auxiliary, by means of which one person can communicate something about something to someone.

The circle in the middle symbolizes the concrete sound phenomenon. Three variable moments on it are capable of raising this phenomenon in three different ways to the rank of a sign. The sides of the drawn-in triangle symbolize these three moments. The triangle encompasses, in one respect, less than the circle (the principle of abstractive relevance). In another direction, however, it surpasses the circle, in order to indicate that the sensibly given constantly experiences an apperceptive enlargement. The multitude of lines symbolizes the defined semantic relations of the language sign. It is a symbol by reason of its being coordinated to objects and states of affairs; an index (indicium) by reason of its dependence on the sender, whose interiority it expresses; and a signal by reason of its appeal to the hearer, whose outer and inner behavior it directs just as other communication signs do.

K. Bühler