Suppose a word is heard from behind a wall, while the speaker remains unseen. Even without understanding the word's dictionary meaning, the mind may infer that a source produced the utterance.
This is verbal rational signification. The sign is a spoken word, but what it indicates here is the speaker's existence rather than the word's conventional meaning.
Two relations must be separated: “book” signifying a book is conventional; hearing someone say “book” and inferring a speaker is rational.
Opening interactive controls...
Six Kinds of Signification and the Three Modes of Verbal Convention
Suppose a word is heard from behind a wall, while the speaker remains unseen. Even without understanding the word's dictionary meaning, the mind may infer that a source produced the utterance.
This is verbal rational signification. The sign is a spoken word, but what it indicates here is the speaker's existence rather than the word's conventional meaning.
Two relations must be separated: “book” signifying a book is conventional; hearing someone say “book” and inferring a speaker is rational.