Signs unfounded and confounded. A reply to Søren Lund.

Abstract

This paper responds to Søren Lund's critique of Roy Harris and integrational linguistics published in this issue. We demonstrate that Lund's characterization of Harris as an armchair linguist and integrational linguistics as merely a development of ideas found in his predecessors is based on ignorance of Harris's writings. We argue that the integrational conception of signs was developed by Harris as a response to his personal linguistic experiences as both a student in post-war England and later as a Romance philologist and dialectologist – experiences which so obviously clashed with the linguistic theories of his days. Furthermore, the paper refutes Lund's views of (i) natural signs as 'found' (not made), (ii) the indeterminacy of the sign, and (iii) integrationism as a form of radical relativism, and attempts to give the reader what the authors think is a more accurate understanding of a Harrisean semiology.