From Peircean Metaphor to Mystical Symbol: A Different Model in the Interpretation of Signs in Mystical Language

Abstract

This article seeks to explicate the interpretive model of symbolic expressions, termed "the evolutionary-oriented pattern", relying on the semiotic foundations of Charles Sanders Peirce, an American pragmatist philosopher and semiotician. Inspired by the ideas of Robert Neville (1996), who initiated the adaptation of Peirce's framework to the realm of religious language, the article adopts a descriptive-critical approach. In the first section, it delves into defining the position of metaphor among various types of signs according to Peirce's classification. Subsequently, it discusses the structure and mechanism of interpreting symbolic expressions within the framework of two semiotic processes, and finally, it elucidates the formation of the semantic network of symbols-metaphors by combining both aforementioned processes. In this article, for the first time, two distinct processes in Peircean semiosis, namely, transcendental and non- transcendental processes, have been identified. The roles of each in creating a semantic chain among signs on one hand and between a sign and its interpretant on the other hand have been elucidated. Among the other achievements of this research are the introduction of conceptual frameworks such as interpretive aspect, semantic context, and the referential scope, each playing a role in the systematic interpretation of a sign. © 2024, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.