The appearance of the word 'Motto' instead of a motto below the title of Jacques Derrida's "Die Weisse Mythologie. Die Metapher im philosophischen Text" ((White Mythology. Metaphor in the Philosophical Text), 1988) provides a point of departure for a consideration of the semiotic roles of mottos in literary works. The relation of a motto to the work with which it appears and its connection to the purpose of the work are addressed, and questions of echoing and translation are raised. Focus is directed to the letter content of the motto in relation to pure language. It is claimed that a motto, functioning as stuttering and as poetry, freezes an "infinitely small point of meaning" of the source text and the posteriority of the text it enters. (Copyright 1995, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (J. Hitchcock in LLBA 1995, vol. 29, n. 5)