Abstract:

The concept of semiotics was first proposed by F. de Saussure, which foreshadowed the emergence of this branch of learning. Neither Saussure nor Pierce has made a specialized study of linguistic semiotics due to the limitations of the times and fields. In the world semiotics, there are still no systematic achievements in linguistic semiotics although this issue is occasionally touched upon. It is undoubtedly the series of studies by Chinese scholars that have really played a fundamental role in the building of linguistic semiotics. This paper probes into the historical development of linguistic semiotics from diachronic and synchronic perspectives, and sorts out 10 related issues on the basis of historical review, involving the concept of signs, the origin of semiotics, the debate between nominalism and realism, the boundary of semiotics, the connections between linguistics and semiotics, the research object of linguistic semiotics, the prominent features of linguistic semiotics, the basic construction of linguistic semiotics, the contribution of Chinese linguistic semiotics and the rise of the fourth realm of semiotics. Linguistic semiotics is a rising interdisciplinary field, which aims to study linguistic signs and linguistics with semiotic methods. It has not been established for a long time and still requires our thorough exploration and preservation.

Key words: Linguistics, Semiotics, Linguistic semiotics