The sign system of human pretending
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Shihong Du
Shihong Du (b. 1965) is a professor at Southwest University 〈dushihong2008@126.com〉. His research interests include semiotics and philosophy of language. His publications include “Pretence, double-pretence, and pretence of pretence – A supplementary remark on Austin's and Chen's analysis of pretending” (2007); “Reflection upon the music acquiring device in relation to the origin of language” (2009); “A linguistic analysis and conceptual investigation of Jia-zhuang” (2010); and “On the logical problem of ‘Jia-zhuang pretend + V’ ” (2010).
Abstract
Two questions unanswered in Austin's analysis of pretending have triggered us to assume that human pretending is a sign system of communication. In order to identify the sign system, we have established four conditions for pretending as a yardstick. Measured with the four conditions, Austin's “pretending to pretend” cannot exist as a semantic entity but merely a form of diction in syntax. Having reviewed Austin's examples, we have arrived at the conclusion that human beings are capable of pretending only whatever they can manipulate, but unable to pretend whatever is beyond their reach.
About the author
Shihong Du (b. 1965) is a professor at Southwest University 〈dushihong2008@126.com〉. His research interests include semiotics and philosophy of language. His publications include “Pretence, double-pretence, and pretence of pretence – A supplementary remark on Austin's and Chen's analysis of pretending” (2007); “Reflection upon the music acquiring device in relation to the origin of language” (2009); “A linguistic analysis and conceptual investigation of Jia-zhuang” (2010); and “On the logical problem of ‘Jia-zhuangpretend + V’ ” (2010).
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Linguistics through its proper mirror-glass: Saussure, signs, segments
- The interrelation of metaphors and metonymies in sign systems of visual art: An example analysis of works by V. I. Surikov
- Information-theoretic confirmation of semiotic structures
- An information-based semiotic analysis of theories concerning theories
- An integrational response to Searlean realism, or how language does not relate to consciousness
- Peirce, meaning, and the Semantic Web
- The puzzling world of Harry Potter
- The sign system of human pretending
- Place and subjectivity in contemporary world: An analysis of Lost in Translation based on the semiotics of passion
- Peirce and the specification of borderline vagueness
- Marks as masks: A study of traditional African occupations and their visual indices
- The linguistic sign at the lexicon-syntax interface: Assumptions and implications of the Generative Lexicon Theory
- Presence of la femme: The semiotic silence
- On trans-semiosis
- Individual variation in participants' account of their own interaction
- From funeral to wedding ceremony: Change in the metaphoric nature of the Chinese color term white
