The considerable contribution of contemporary linguistics to semiotics is well known, and the influence of the linguistic paradigm in semiotic investigations is equally well-documented. However, the reverse direction, that of the effects of current semiotic methods on linguistic method is hardly a concept. This seems rather incongruous, since the contemporary period of these two disciplines dates from the end of the last century with Saussure, who was both a linguist and a semiotist, and it has been continually nurtured throughout this century by Jakobson and others, who are equally at home in linguistics and semiotics. Yet, slight indications of the consistent intervention of the semiotic paradigm in behalf of hard linguistic data, in particular that involved in explaining language change, have been delayed until now, the final quarter of this century.