Abstract
The analysis of social communication in other-than-human animals poses several theoretical challenges due to the complexity of individual and extra-individual variables. Some previous studies have found a valuable solution in Uexküll’s work by expanding and adapting its usage for the study of communication in a heurtistic manner. An Umwelt analysis provides a theoretical toolbox, which allows researchers to take an emic perspective on the lives and phenomenal world of other animals. However, Umwelt and its elaborations do not allow for a clear distinction between acts of perception and communication and seem to ignore factors that escape the specific communication contexts under analysis. Thus, moving away from the existing linear and cyclical approaches to communication, we propose a complementary approach to the study of social communication by combining Barnlund’s transactional model of communication with Umwelt theory and the functional circle more specifically. Our elaborated model conceives social communication as the process of creating meaning through the interaction of two (or more) subjects and emphasizes the role of species-specific and individual features in its creation. Our goal is to re-evaluate the research on social communication of other-than-human animals by advocating for the theoretical and empirical potential of Umwelt, especially pertaining to animals with complex Umwelten. Our model offers a valuable solution to the analysis of intraspecies communication that accounts for the role of private and public cues as well as the subjects’ specific behaviors, messages, and context in the creation of meaning.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Derrida’s “chimerical experimental exercise”: an ecolinguistic dream of a more biocentric language
- The plastic of clothing and the construction of visual communication and interaction: a semiotic examination of the eighteenth-century French dress
- A zoosemiotic approach to the transactional model of communication
- Complexes, rule-following, and language games: Wittgenstein’s philosophical method and its relevance to semiotics
- The distribution of handshapes in the established lexicon of Israeli Sign Language (ISL)
- On the blankness of blank-signs
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- Practical Esotericism and Tikkun Olam: two modern renditions of a medieval mystical idea
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- Book Reviews
- Semiotics in visual communication: review of Doing Visual Analysis
- Review of A (bio)semiotic theory of translation: the emergence of social-cultural reality
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Derrida’s “chimerical experimental exercise”: an ecolinguistic dream of a more biocentric language
- The plastic of clothing and the construction of visual communication and interaction: a semiotic examination of the eighteenth-century French dress
- A zoosemiotic approach to the transactional model of communication
- Complexes, rule-following, and language games: Wittgenstein’s philosophical method and its relevance to semiotics
- The distribution of handshapes in the established lexicon of Israeli Sign Language (ISL)
- On the blankness of blank-signs
- Systematizing evil in literature: twelve models for the analysis of narrative fiction
- The use of semiotic resources in traffic policing: an exploration of genre structure and exchanges in traffic accident handling in China
- Practical Esotericism and Tikkun Olam: two modern renditions of a medieval mystical idea
- Bühler’s organon model of communication: a semiotic analysis of advertising slogans
- Book Reviews
- Semiotics in visual communication: review of Doing Visual Analysis
- Review of A (bio)semiotic theory of translation: the emergence of social-cultural reality