The Logic of Gradience: Differentiation as Ontological Form: 3 The Semiotic Gradient

Meaning unfolds through differential readiness.

If physical and biological systems express gradients as inclinations and asymmetries, semiotic systems do so through the modulation of potential for interpretation, alignment, and construal. The semiotic gradient is the field’s differentiation of meaning — the slope along which construals rise, interact, and stabilise.

Just as a topographic gradient shapes the flow of water, semiotic gradients shape the flow of interpretation. But unlike physical fields, these slopes are reflexive: they are simultaneously produced by and productive of the patterns they sustain.

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1. Meaning as Gradual Differentiation

Semiotic differentiation is not a matter of discrete units or symbols; it is a continuous modulation of potential:

• Each utterance, text, or gesture expresses degrees of interpretive readiness.

• These degrees create local slopes along which meaning can propagate.

• Interpretation is therefore guided not by rigid rules but by the relative steepness of semiotic gradients.

For instance, register variation in language can be understood as a semiotic slope: different contextual configurations produce distinct inclinations for construal, shaping what meanings are accessible, salient, or stabilised at a given moment.

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2. Reflexive Gradience

In semiotic systems, gradients are reflexive: the act of construal modulates the very slopes along which further construals will occur. This produces a dynamic feedback loop:

• A local interpretation steepens certain gradients, making some meanings more likely to be realised.

• It simultaneously flattens others, diminishing the probability of alternative construals.

• The field remains open, yet directional — coherence is achieved not by fixing interpretation but by continuously adjusting gradients of potential.

This reflexivity distinguishes semiotic gradience from physical or biological gradients. In meaning systems, the slope is both experienced and produced, a self-modulating topology of interpretive readiness.

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3. Stabilisation Through Gradient Modulation

Gradients do not act alone; they produce regions of relative stability — interpretive wells where construals can gather and interact. These are not fixed meanings but temporary equilibria, maintained by the ongoing modulation of semiotic slopes.

• Local steepening attracts related construals, generating coherence.

• Simultaneous flattening prevents ossification, preserving the field’s openness.

• Semiotic gradients thus sustain both continuity and adaptability, enabling the field of meaning to remain alive, responsive, and generative.

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4. Cross-Domain Resonances

The semiotic gradient parallels physical and biological gradience:

• A photon follows a slope of energy potential.

• A cell binds according to complementary molecular inclinations.

• A discourse unfolds along interpretive gradients.

In each case, the system is shaped by its internal topology: by the local inclinations and global coherence that structure potential into form. Semiotic gradience is ontologically continuous with these other domains, demonstrating that all forms of becoming share a common logic of differential readiness.

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Next: The Gradient and the Cut

Having seen how gradients structure both direction and meaning, the next part will examine how actualisation — the “cut” of events, acts, or utterances — emerges within continuous gradience. We will show that instantiation is never an external imposition but a local intensification of the field’s own slope, a perspectival inflection within the topology of becoming.