Extended axiomatic functionalism: postulates

These postulates, comprising six axioms plus ensuing definitions, provide a formal account of the semiotic (including linguistic) theory of extended axiomatic functionalism. They are organised to be maximally comparable with Mulder and Hervey’s postulates for standard axiomatic functionalism. The axioms are the primitive statements of the theory, introducing new theoretical propositions. The definitions introduce technical terms by linking them to notions in the theory. Axiom A and ensuing definitions detail the functional principle, dominating both components of the theory: the system ontology and the signum ontology. The system ontology deals with the abstract semiotic entities in cenology (linguistics, phonology), logology (linguistics, lexology), and delology (denotational semantics). The signum ontology provides a set-theoretically based account of the relationship between system-ontological entities and semiotic occurrences (utterances). Axiom B and ensuing definitions treat almost all aspects of the system ontology, except para-ontotactics, Axiom C and ensuing definitions treat paraontotactics, and Axiom D and ensuing definitions detail the notion ‘sentence’ (the maximal unit covered by the theory). Axiom E and ensuing definitions principally treat the allontic level, while Axiom F and ensuing definitions treat remaining aspects of the signum ontology. Figure 1 Extended axiomatic functionalism: semiotics and Figure 2 Extended axiomatic functionalism: linguistics (at the end of the postulates) represent visually the main entities and notions of the theory.