Signs, Senses and Cognition: Lady Welby and Contemporary Semiotics

Susan Petrilli discusses Victoria Welby (1837–1912) and the Signific movement in her book Signifying and Understanding. The disposition of the book is chronological and thematic, and Petrilli’s discussion connects Welby’s work with contemporary semiotics, as well as with the intellectual and scientific landscape of Welby’s own time. For instance, a selection of Welby’s vast correspondence with intellectuals, researchers and philosophers important to linguistics, semiotics, psychology and anthropology, to mention a few of her interests mirrored in the exchange of letters, is included in the book. The review aims at further connecting Welby’s work to semiotic research of the day, where phenomenological and modern cognitive influences are important.