Susan Petrilli

Lady Victoria Welby

This book introduces and provides commentary on a selection of published and unpublished works by Victoria Welby and exponents of the Signific Movement in the Netherlands. Beyond offering an important contribution to the reconstruction of a neglected phase in the history of ideas, it evidences the theoretical topicality of significs, in particular the focus on the relation of signs to value, meaning, and understanding, on verbal and nonverbal behavior, and on language and communication.

Reading the Works of Victoria Welby and the Signific Movement

Signifying and Understanding

In "What is Meaning" (1903) the author elaborates on the fundamental tenets of her theory of sign, to which she give the overall term significs . One of the main obstacles to an adequate theory of meaning, in Lady Welby s opinion, is the unfounded assumption of fixed sign meaning. "There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as the Sense of a word, but only the sense in which it is used the circumstances, state of mind, reference, universe of discourse belonging to it. The Meaning of a word is the intent which it is desired to convey the intention of the user. The Significance is always manifold, and intensifies its sense as well as its meaning, by expressing its importance, its appeal to us, its moment for us, its emotional force, its ideal value, its moral aspect, its universal or at least social range." This facsimile of the 1903 edition of "What is Meaning" is accompanied by an essay on "Significs as a Fundamental Science" by Achim Eschbach, and "A Concise History of Significs" by G. Mannoury.

Lady Victoria Welby

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