the general study of signs that began in latin with augustine culminated with the 1632 "tractatus de signis" of john poinsot, and then began anew in late modernity with the attempt in 1867 by charles sanders peirce to draw up a "new list of categories." more recently, umberto eco, in his "semiotics and the philosophy of language", has argued that semiotic theories are implicit in the work of most, perhaps all, major thinkers.