To the description of semiotic theory in the tradition of Chinese Linguistics

Abstract

The Russian scholars often associate semiotics with such names as Ferdinand De Saussure, Charles Morris, Roland Barthes, who wrote a wide variety of works and significantly contributed to the formation of semiotics. Therefore, the Russian science has sound understanding of semiotics in Europe. In Asian regions, namely in China, semiotics is also one of the most popular trends. This article gives special attention to the formation and development of semiotics in the modern Chinese academic environment for the purpose of revealing and clarifying the key periods of study of semiotic theory, trends and directions of semiotic research, as well as the main works written by the Chinese authors from the perspective of semiotics. The author's special contribution into this research consists in introduction to the Russian linguistic paradigm of the process of formation of semiotics as an independent scientific direction within the Chinese academic environment. Description is provided to the three key periods of development and advancement of semiotic theories in China. The main trends and directions of research in the modern academic environment are explored. The article features the works of the prominent Chinese linguists – Yaping Huang and Hua Meng, who implemented  the semiotic ideas into the study of ideographic writing. The article also examines the work of the renowned Chinese scholar Qian Guanlian, who studied the pragmalinguistic aspects from the perspective of semiotics, which allowed comprising a semiotic base of the communication theory and pragmatics, and thus made a significant contribution to further research of these trends.