## Zeroth Law Of Semiotics • Discussion 4

JA:
A statement $S_0$ asserts that a statement $S_1$ is a statement that $S_1$ is false.

The statement $S_0$ violates an axiom of logic, so it doesn’t really matter whether the ostensible statement $S_1,$ the so-called liar, really is a statement or has a truth value.

ET:
Well the truth value can be true or false or something else — akin to $5 + 5 = 12$ being a true statement, if one knows what base it involves, else it may be false.  The same for $4 + 4 = 10$ being a true statement, if one knows what base it involves.

Esteban is calling attention to the fact that our place-value systems of representation for integers and other numbers are relative to the basis chosen to generate the sequence of implied place values.  The basis is, in effect, the key to the code.  We may take this as a special case of a more general fact, one I summed up as follows.

• Reference is relative to a frame of reference.  In pragmatic semiotics, frames of reference are called sign relations.

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