Grice's Signature: The Implicature

by JLS
for the Grice Club

I'm studying some vulgar Latin roots.

Implicatura, in Latin, gives Italian 'impiegatura'.

Similarly, Latin 'signatura' becomes Italian 'segnatura'.

Grice KNEW this.

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A "signature" (in Italian, "segnatura", from Latin, "signatura", ultimately from signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and sometimes stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent.

Grice's case:

Those spots mean measles.

In Latin:

Those spots "sign" measles. I.e. they are a 'sign' OF measles.

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Cfr.

Italian: segnare, and 'segnalare', to signal.

"Those spots signal measles."

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Grice's implicatura:

Suppose the owner of a fourth-rate albergo in Rome decides to draw five stars on its walls.

"Those five stars means this is a first-rate hotel"

But it isn't.

Five stars can "lie".

According to "Grice italiano", Umberto Eco, a sign is whatever you can lie with.

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Hence 'signature tune'.

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The writer of a signature is a signatory.

Similar to a handwritten signature, a signature work describes the work as readily identifying its creator -- or utterer, in Grice's parlance, 'segnatore'.

A signature may be confused with an autograph, which is chiefly an artistic signature.

(as in Da Vinci, "Mona Lisa").

The traditional function of a signature is evidential:

it is to give evidence of:

1.The provenance of the document (identity)

2.The intention (will) of an individual with regard to that document

For example, the role of a signature in many consumer contracts is not solely to provide evidence of the identity of the contracting party, but rather to additionally provide evidence of deliberation and informed consent. This is why the signature often appears at the bottom or end of a document.

In many countries, signatures may be witnessed and recorded in the presence of a Notary Public to carry additional legal force. On legal documents, an illiterate signatory can make a "mark" (often an "X" but occasionally a personalized symbol), so long as the document is countersigned by a literate witness. In some countries, illiterate people place a thumbprint on legal documents in lieu of a written signature.

There are many other terms which are synonymous with 'signature'. In the United States, one is John Hancock, named after the first of the signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence.

The signature of a famous person is sometimes known as an autograph, and is then typically written on its own or with a brief note to the recipient. Rather than providing authentication for a document, the autograph is given as a souvenir which acknowledges the recipient's access to the autographer.

In the United States, signatures encompass marks and actions of all sorts that are indicative of identity and intent. The legal rule is that unless a statute specifically prescribes a particular method of making a signature it may be made in any number of ways. These include by a mechanical or rubber stamp facsimile. A signature may be made by the purported signer. Alternatively someone else duly authorized by the signer acting in the signer's presence and at the signer's direction may make the signature.[2]

Many individuals have much more fanciful signatures than their normal cursive writing, including elaborate ascenders, descenders and exotic flourishes, much as one would find in calligraphic writing. As an example, the final "k" in John Hancock's famous signature on the US Declaration of Independence loops back to underline his name. This kind of flourish is also known as a paraph.[3][4]

Special signature machines, called autopens, are capable of automatically reproducing an individual's signature. These are typically used by people required to sign many documents, for example celebrities, heads of state or CEOs.

More recently, Members of Congress in the United States have begun having their signature made into a TrueType font file. This allows staff members in the Congressman's office to easily reproduce it on correspondence, legislation, and official documents.


East Asian name sealIn the East Asia languages of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, people typically use name-seals with the name written in tensho script (seal script) in lieu of a handwritten signature.

Several cultures whose languages use writing systems other than alphabets do not share the Western notion of signatures per se: the "signing" of one's name results in a written product no different from the result of "writing" one's name in the standard way. For these languages, to write or to sign involves the same written characters. Also see Calligraphy.

In e-mail and newsgroup usage, another type of signature exists which is independent of one's language.

Users can set one or more lines of custom text known as a signature block to be automatically appended to their messages. This text usually includes a name, contact information, and sometimes quotations and ASCII art. A shortened form of a signature block, only including one's name, often with some distinguishing prefix, can be used to simply indicate the end of a post or response. Some web sites also allow graphics to be used. Note, however, that this type of signature is not related to electronic signatures or digital signatures, which are more technical in nature and not directly readable by human eyes.

The signature on a painting or other work of art has always been an important item in the assessment of art. Fake signatures are sometimes added to enhance the value of a painting, or are added to a fake painting to support its authenticity. A notorious case was the signature of Johannes Vermeer on the fake "Supper at Emmaus" made by the art-forger Han van Meegeren.

The term "signature" is also used to mean the characteristics that give an object, or a piece of information, its identity—for example, the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle.

By analogy, the word "signature" may be used to refer to the characteristic expression of a process or thing. For example, the climate phenomenon known as ENSO or El Niño has characteristic modes in different ocean basins which are often referred to as the "signature" of ENSO.

Under British law, the appearance of signatures (not the names themselves) may be protected under copyright law.

Under United States Copyright Law, "titles, names [...]; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring" are not eligible for copyright; however, the appearance of signatures (not the names themselves) may be protected under copyright law. It has been deemed illegal to publish signatures[clarification needed] in Canada.[citation needed]

Look up signature in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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This audio file was created from a revision of Signature dated 2006-05-21, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
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References1.

Oxford English Dictionary, accessed May 3, 2011.

2.^ 80 Corpis Juris Secondum, Signatures, sections 2 through 7

3.^ Paraphe, also spelled parafe, is a term meaning flourish, initial or signature in French (Paraphe entry, reverso translation software, based on the Collins French-English Dictionary, Harpercollins, Flexible edition, August 1990, ISBN 0062755080).

4.^ The paraph is used in graphology analyses.

5.^ Spilsbury, Sallie (2000). Media Law. Cavendish Publishing. p. p. 439. ISBN 185941530X. "An individual's signature may be protected under law as an artistic work. If so, the unauthorised reproduction of the signature will infringe copyright. The name itself will not be protected by copyright; it is the appearance of the signature which is protected."
6.^ "Copyright Basics", United States Copyright Office. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
7.^ Spilsbury, Sallie (2000). Media Law. Cavendish Publishing. p. 439. ISBN 185941530X. "An individual's signature may be protected under law as an artistic work. If so, the unauthorised reproduction of the signature will infringe copyright. The name itself will not be protected by copyright; it is the appearance of the signature which is protected."