Abstract
The article distinguishes three levels of sign communication (communication): communicative acts, conversations and discourses. The structure of a communicative act is considered and three types of communicative acts are distinguished, according to which three types of communication are distinguished. The level of discourses is considered in more detail, the integral ontological and structural features of discourses are highlighted. Some features of the discourses of philosophy and science are also considered. The term "discourse" applies only to the last level of communication.