Volume 16, Issue 1

Translation, for Saussure, assumed the codified rule of language respecting the difference between synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Translation may be regarded as a theoretical possibility, though impossible for the creative speech of language speakers. Peirce’s logical semiotics reasoned the linguistic-and-cultural (linguïcultural) interpretants of received signs. Semiotranslation is a semiotic game to change the symbiosis of two languages into one language. Identified with both Saussure and Peirce, Jakobson’s intralingual, interlingual, and intersemiotic forms of translation propose rewording, translation proper, and transmutation. Peirce’s semiosis creates simple and complex symbols but navigates between translation, semiotranslation, and transduction. Translation derives from the para -functions of replicas in “paraphrase” and “parasite” to signify the multiplicity of ideas and trends in biotranslation. The source text can be re-organized into the iconic activity of Saussurean paraphrase; or the target text can be indexically recontextualized in the parasitical evolution of Peirce’s instinct and facts of life applied to arts — neither approaching pure science.

Jakobson’s article “On linguistic aspects of translation” proposes a tripartite division of translation as intralingual, interlingual, and intersemiotic, which offers a panorama of a semiotic approach to translation, especially to what is translation in a multileveled sense. Subsequent scholars develop the two implicit ideas in his article, named by the author as “translation as sign transformation” and “translation as sign interpretation.” While further widening the scope and enriching the perspective of Jakobson’s typology, current literature remains purely theoretical in essence. As a particular research area, cultural terminology translation could serve as the axis linking theory and practice, which becomes the primary concern for this paper. Grounded on a review of Jakobson’s division and related literature in translation semiotics, this study proposes a multileveled understanding of cultural terminology translation based on some concrete cases. Cultural terminology translation is regarded as “sign transformation” and “sign interpretation.” As sign transformation, it concerns the transformation of conceptual, linguistic, and cultural signs, while as sign interpretation, it goes from intralingual to interlingual to intersemiotic interpretation. This research concludes that cultural terminology translation is a complex sign activity calling for further investigations.

This is a study of Chinese rhetorical constructions, parody and garden path (GP), from the perspective of lexico-constructional pragmatics (LCP). LCP adopts a holographic view of lexicon and construction so that they can be analyzed alike. We take parody and GP examples from Chinese advertisements for analysis. The LCP analysis highlights the pragmaticity and rhetoricality of each case: for a particular effect. When difficulty arises, pragmatic means may be used to “pragma-coerce” the right, clever, or erroneous use of a rhetorical construction for delivery of a retrievable intended effect, an Aha-effect. We conduct a mini-questionnaire with two cases, the former dealing with parody and the latter with GP. The study indicates the humor competence of ordinary Chinese participants (around the level of BA) as far as parody and GP are concerned and the participants’ potential for cognition of the pragma-rhetorical values of parody and GP or their potential for generation of such utterances. It is suggested that rhetorical constructions outwit the less rhetorical or grammatical constructions iff they are available and accessible, and that LCP can offer us a feasible interpretation of such tropes as parody and GP.

In the history of Russian philosophy of language, Bakhtin and Shpet are two very important figures. As scholars having reached the peak of academic humanities, they both scored great achievements in many fields. The contributions they made to semiotics have a direct impact on the semiotic view of the Moscow-Tartu School and other scholars who later represented the highest achievements of Russian semiotics. It was many years earlier than Bakhtin that Shpet put forward views similar to those of Bakhtin. But Bakhtin surpassed Shpet and extended semiotics to a broader humanistic space.

As the subjects to create and construct coherence in discourses, human beings should become the focus of coherence study. This paper points out the linguistic philosophical nature of discourse coherence and discusses the existence, dynamicity, and plasticity of dialogicity among subjects in coherence based on Bakhtin’s Theory of Dialogue. We demonstrate the construction of coherence on the basis of intentional space, which consists of theme, subject, and the whole context (or TSW structure). This paper analyzes two poems, one a Chinese poem and the other an English poem, as examples to verify the existence, dynamicity, and plasticity of dialogicity among subjects in the coherence space construction process. We also apply the TSW structure to the analysis of these two poems. This study provides discourse subjects with helpful tips and enhances comprehension of the discourse.

Cognitive semiotics is a new field for the study of meaning in trans-disciplines, such as semiotics, cognitive linguistics, and corpus linguistics. This paper aims at studying how cognitive semiotics is employed to construe conceptual metaphors in discourse. We conducted a corpus-based study, with Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Fauconnier and Turner’s Blending Theory (BT), to illustrate our cognitive-semiotic model for metaphors in Dragon Seed , written by Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck. The major finding is that metaphors are mental constructions involving many spaces and mappings in the cognitive-semiotic network. These integration networks are related to encoders’ cognitive, cultural, and social contexts. Additionally, cognitive semiotics can be employed to construe conceptual metaphors in discourse vividly and comprehensively and thus is helpful to reveal the ideology and the theme of the discourse.

Peirce section editor Cary Campbell introduces a series of short articles from Mary Keeler, on improving digital access to the Peirce manuscripts (in particular, his late unpublished manuscripts), discussing and exploring possibilities for their effective communication, preservation, (multimodal) representation, and augmentation through technology. Keeler develops an approach to this research stemming from Peirce’s own mutually supporting pragmatism and synechism and his theory of social learning and inquiry. She argues for an ontological approach to cataloguing the archive in a way that can “accommodate diverse disciplinary perspectives.”

This article presents a short but detailed account of the current issues facing Peirce scholarship in efforts to preserve and interpret Peirce’s massive corpus archived at Harvard. The significance of Peirce’s multimodal writings (including colorful graphics and text), along with his convoluted processes of inquiry in the development of his philosophy, are examined to indicate why the representational experiments in his manuscripts, and their topological continuity, defy the limitations of conventional publishing. With full and effective access to his entire corpus, scholars could trace the self-critical evolution of Peirce’s ideas, from origins to mature expressions, and thereby gain a more complete understanding of his immense intellectual offering to humanity. Here, in this first article (in a series of four), we begin to identify what will be required.

This second article (in a series of six), presents an examination of the existing conditions that limit access to Peirce’s corpus, and offers some detailed account of what reasoning technology could be used to improve these conditions. Peirce’s theory of recursive inquiry, relying on his pragmatism, gives us the basis for designing technology to support effective access to his archive, and to pursue future improvement by developing a crowdsourced community of inquiry for continuing semiosis.