Abstract
Three basic semiotic modes are presented that show an increasing number of referential relations: passive semiosis (monadic semiotic mode), active production of a sign referring to a state of the utterer (dyadic semiotic mode), and active reference to an external event or object for a partner (triadic semiotic mode). Symbolic systems arise when the third semiotic mode is combined with a combinatorial principle typical of information processing. Symbols are not directly representational, since they do not show the associative relation typical of the first two semiotic modes. The brain is not able, with its intrinsic resources, to give rise to a symbolic system, but needs external, physical units (phonemes, gestures, and so on) to be combined to form communicative structures as sentences and discourses. These units are both discrete and codified. Nonhuman primates' inability to possess a true language is due, at least in part, to their failure to discover the principle of combination. Symbolic systems may have arisen phylogenetically in close connection with cooperation for tool making.
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