Mathematics, whether in its teaching or in its more advanced practices, is a domain where all the forms of semiotic representation can be used. This entails the following problem: do different semiotic theories allow for the analysis of the use of images, language and symbols in mathematics? To grasp the givens of the problem, we not only have to see how these teories make the distinction between the relations that constitute and differentiate signs, but we also have to consider the mathematical demands which necessitate that we make recourse to different kinds of semiotic representation. Their comparison reveals a considerable gap between existing semiotic tools and the semiotic complexity found in all mathematical production. Limiting ourselves to the case of the representation of numbers, we can highlight the fact that these tools do not allow us to analyze the semiotic heterogeneity of the different systems used. Moreover, this semiotic heterogeneity brings up one the major difficulties in the learning of mathematics: going from one type of representation to another. The analysis of mathematical productions demands semiotic tool of analysis that are more complex and better adapted to the cognitive practices mobilized in all mathematical activity. In order to undertake this research, three questions seem to be crucial: that of the pertinence of the distinction between signifier and signified, that of the classification of signs, and that of the connection between the functional analysis and the structural analysis of signs.
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