This volume contains selected contributions from the colloquium From Sign to Text' (Ben Gurion University, 1985) and combines the diverse interdisciplinary interests and approaches of the contributors in a fundamentally shared definition of language seen as a flexible and open-ended system of systems' revolving around the notion of signs used by human beings to communicate. The special interrelationship between signs and texts is discussed both theoretically and methodologically. The collection consists of an English and a French section.