The Analysis of the structural motivation of Oracle bone inscriptions from the perspective of Pierce Semiotics

Abstract

American philosopher Peirce proposed the "trinity" structure of symbols, dividing symbols into "image symbol" and "symbol", which are based on "motivation". Oracle bone inscriptions basically belong to "motivation symbol", that is, the logical correlation between the sign (font) and the object (meaning), that is, the reason for creating characters and the basis for the formation of meaning. This paper uses Pierce's semiotics theory to analyze the motivation of oracle bone sign configuration.