  Soon after 1300 the modistic approach came under substantial criticism. The main point that critics like Ockham oppose is not the assumption of a basic universal grammar, for such a claim is implied in Ockham's concept of mental grammar, too. Two other aspects of modism are in the focus of these criticisms: (1) the assertion of a close structural analogy between spoken or mental language and external reality (consimilis distinctio inter voces vel intentiones in anima significantes et inter ipsa significata) (William of Ockham, Expos. in lIbid. Porphyrii de praed., 1978, 158); (2) the inadmissible reification of the modus significandi adherent to its description as some quality or form added to the articulate voice (dictioni superadditum) through the act of imposition. To say that vocal expressions ‘have’ different modes of signifying is, as Ockham points out, just a metaphorical manner of speaking; for what is meant is simply the fact that different words signify whatever they signify in different  ways.[39]  According to John Aurifaber (fl. ca. 1300), a vocal term is significative, or is a sign, solely by being used significatively, not on grounds of something inherent in the  sound.[40]  In order to assign signification a proper place in reality, it must be ascribed to the intellect rather than to the vocal sound (significare est accidens intellectus; sed vox est illud quo significat intellectus) (Aurifaber, Determ. de modis signif., 1967, 226). The criticism of modist grammar is based on a fundamental redefinition of the concept of sign, coming about after the mid-13th century. For the translocation of signification in the proper sense from the word to the intellect is based on the presupposition that, whatever Augustine may have said, mental concepts are signs themselves.