L. J. Prieto ou de la solitude du penseur

The relation of L. J. Prieto (1926-1996) to the Saussurean legacy and the structuralist network particular enough that the word “school” cannot be used to describe it. Prieto’s research was solely guided by constantly straining towards consistency, ignoring mainstream ideas. Notwithstanding, it is possible to sketch the network connecting Prieto to other giants of structuralist semiolinguistic thought, and to draw strong analogies between his theories and other, non-structural, forms of semiotics and philosophy of language (mainly pragmatism and analytical philosophy). The final – and less known – result of Prieto’s studies is cto be found in the volumes of Saggi di semiotica, revealing a comprehensive anthroposemiotic vision, dealing in a genuinely Saussurean fashion with problems often ignored by the mainstream structuralist tradition (e.g. a theory of institutions, which could play a role in the current debate in social ontology).