Wood, Tahir2017-09-072017-09-072013Wood, T. (2013). Abstraction as a limit to semiosis. Semiotica, 197: 65-770037-1998http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/sem-2013-0080https://hdl.handle.net/10566/3179In highly evolved culture, discourse is made up of complexes of implicit and explicit inter-textual relations, which form the meanings for new signifiers. Meanings for common abstract nouns are derived from the modeling of typical situations in everyday narratives. However at a further level of abstraction, models of discourses, which themselves contain abstract concepts, provide meanings for what are called �hyper-abstract� nominals. Here a certain limit is reached, and it is argued that this diachronic, onomasiological process provides a constraint on the notion of �unlimited semiosis.� This constraint has both natural and ethical aspects.enThis is the author-version of the article published online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/sem-2013-0080Unlimited semiosisAbstractionSymbolicInfinityConcreteDiscourseArticle