Abstract

SummaryThis paper is on what we understand when we are said to understand semiotic sequences, such as sentences, arguments, proofs, road indications, jokes, and works of art, and on how we can understand them. The theory of understanding defended here is psycho‐pragmatic, and it is anthropologically oriented. The contention is that we always understand significances: users of semiotic systems have an acceptance relation with a significance ≪[]: the conveyed proposition is modified by the universal rationality operator ≪, and by the partial mood‐operator. We can understand significances by the fact that they are descriptively presented to the users of semiotic systems as common values of the community to which they belong and want to belong