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Scholars in the field of communication theory and research have ignored and problematized the relationship between sign and meaning. This paper discusses the relationship in order to catalogue the different positions taken and to investigate the work that gets done from these positions. In the "brute sense data" or physicalist position, the character of the sign is responsible for encoding, decoding, and interpretation. The perceptionist position occupies a broad region, noting only certain discrepancies in the reception and interpretation of sensory information, speculating on perceptual realities only loosely connected to sensation. The constructionist draws the conclusion which the perceptionist resists: if perception intervenes between understanding and the phenomenal world then humans must be active participants in co-constructing the world they believe in. The hermeneuticist places meaning in the successful expression of power. For the physicalist and the perceptionist, signs have meanings independent of their creation; for the constructionist and hermeneutist there is nothing prior to semiotics in understanding and meaning is a cultural production. Two tables accompany the discussion and present the relationship between sign and meaning in the realms of sign production and interpretation for each of the four positions. (Contains 45 references.) (AEF)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert