Abstract
For a sign to be a sign it must bond an object (quality), a signifier, and the idea to which it gives rise (CP 1.339). The paper focuses on the iconicity of silence as a hypoiconic signifier, exploring the semiotics of silence in light of the notions and studies of iconicity. Fascinating parallelisms hold between iconicity and silence. These raise many challenges to the study of each separately, let alone dealing with them jointly. Some icons and some silences are qualities in the real world, others are semiotic forms (signifiers) standing for or denoting objects. Simple, intuitive qualities of iconicity and of silence are naturally grasped and shared from antiquity to the present by cultures and peoples. The paper employs Peirce’s initial basic trichotomy of iconic classes as well as his later hierarchies for studying the iconic stance of silence as a hypoiconic signifier (Secondness). Analyzing and illustrating the possible complexities between forms (a silent signifier), contents, their relations and their interpretations, group hypoiconic silences into silence as an image, silence as a diagram, and silence as a metaphor.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The gap between instruction (plan) and situated action: A challenge to semiotics?
- “What makes a reasoning sound” is the proof of its truth: A reconstruction of Peirce’s semiotics as epistemic logic, and why he did not complete his realistic revolution
- Can museums and luxury brands’ perceptions be compared? How a survey and semiotics help decipher the French collective psyche, relative to cultural and commercial identities
- Peirce, evolutionary aesthetics, and literary meaning: Tension, index, symbol
- On the concept of “sign” in the Hebrew Bible
- The role of séméiotique in François Delsarte’s aesthetics
- The lens of firstness: Shamanic/Aboriginal culture as cosmos-sign
- Translating like a conduit? A sociosemiotic analysis of modality in Chinese government press conference interpreting
- The Peircean order of signification and its encoding system in Chinese landscape painting
- Les valeurs culturelles des cafés contemporains Coréens : Analyse sémiotique des pratiques des consommateurs
- Iconic silence: A semiotic paradox or a semiotic paragon?
- Darth Vader in Ukraine: On the boundary between reality and mythology
- Stance markers in television news presentation: Expressivity of eyebrow flashes in the delivery of news
- Review article/Compte rendu
- La sémiotique des formes de vie, un nouveau tournant ?
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The gap between instruction (plan) and situated action: A challenge to semiotics?
- “What makes a reasoning sound” is the proof of its truth: A reconstruction of Peirce’s semiotics as epistemic logic, and why he did not complete his realistic revolution
- Can museums and luxury brands’ perceptions be compared? How a survey and semiotics help decipher the French collective psyche, relative to cultural and commercial identities
- Peirce, evolutionary aesthetics, and literary meaning: Tension, index, symbol
- On the concept of “sign” in the Hebrew Bible
- The role of séméiotique in François Delsarte’s aesthetics
- The lens of firstness: Shamanic/Aboriginal culture as cosmos-sign
- Translating like a conduit? A sociosemiotic analysis of modality in Chinese government press conference interpreting
- The Peircean order of signification and its encoding system in Chinese landscape painting
- Les valeurs culturelles des cafés contemporains Coréens : Analyse sémiotique des pratiques des consommateurs
- Iconic silence: A semiotic paradox or a semiotic paragon?
- Darth Vader in Ukraine: On the boundary between reality and mythology
- Stance markers in television news presentation: Expressivity of eyebrow flashes in the delivery of news
- Review article/Compte rendu
- La sémiotique des formes de vie, un nouveau tournant ?