On Sense, Meaning and Responsibility. Victoria Welby’s Significs

Victoria LadyWelby (1837–1912) has contributed significantly to studies on sign, language, and communication. She coined the term “significs” for her special approach to theory ofmeaning with its focus on sense and significance. Though verbal languagewas her main interest, she never lost sight of the connection to the nonverbal and the implications thereof for signification. In addition to the relationship between sign and value, sense, meaning, and significance, significs reflects on the question of interpretation and translation, on the relation between literal meaning and metaphorical meaning, language and critique, thought and practice, on the conscious and responsible use of language, on the relation between critical linguistic consciousness and ethical-pragmatic engagement. Meaning is engendered (and not merely transmitted) in expression and communicative interaction, in dynamical processes of becoming.Welby thematizes the capacity for questioning as the pathway to understanding, the humanization of experience, and responsible action. Researching at a time when evolutionary theory overturned the conception of life and humankind’s place in the universe, she rejected all forms of anthropocentrism. She critiqued prejudicial and stereotypical discourse, unquestioning obedience to the strongholds of truth, morality, and justice—whether Church or State, advocating education for meaning, critical thinking, and responsibility from early childhood. Significs today has been developed in terms of semioethics and is rich in implications for the ethics of communication and human relations.