1 Probably the example of a dictionary best exemplifies
post-modernist understandings of language; that is, namely, that definitions of
words are comprised of words themselves defined elsewhere in the dictionary.
To put it another way, language is entirely self-referential. The Internet
itself can help us when we look at a "hypertext dictionary," where every word
is but a link to another. See this URL for a Hypertext version of Webster's
dictionary: <http://c.gp.cs.cmu.edu:5103/prog/webster>. Also, for more
on postmodernism, consider the terms "deconstruction" and
"post-structuralism."
2 A digitally-enhanced discussion of Percy's semiotic, from which
portions of this essay are taken, is available at this URL:
<http://sunsite.unc.edu/wpercy/hpm.html>.