Volume 7, Issue 1

The relation between the “original” text and its “translation” into another language is analyzed in terms of “similarity” and “difference”. What may be understood by “similarity” and “difference” is also explored. With respect to the original, in fact, a translation can be described as the “same/other”. Our theoretical framework is Peirce’s general sign theory with special reference to his renowned triad icon, symbol and index. Translation is also viewed in terms of the relation between representation and figuration, therefore between the direct and the indirect word. Ultimately, the word in translation is likened to the literary word.

Logical systems of categories are the core of philosophy and the starting point of all philosophic theories. The same is true for semiotics and linguistics. The author of this paper attempts to construct the logical systems of categories of the two major schools of modern semiotics and those of several representative linguistic disciplines and describe their development so as to illuminate the philosophical origins of the two schools of semiotics and the philosophical and semiotic origins of those linguistic disciplines and the relationships among them. It is hoped that this study serves as a template for research in the fields of semiotics and linguistics

Signs in sign-systems are not fixed and unalterable; they constantly change both in form and in meaning. Still, the degree of change in the signs and the innovations they engender depend on many circumstances. One type of change in signs is the process I call sign-merging. This process produces composite signs, which I call compounds. This article defines what sign-merging is, how it occurs, and in what ways it differs from other changes in signs. Beyond this, it discusses the peculiarities of compounds and how they differ from other types of signs.

This study seeks to articulate some notions concerning “aesthetics” in Saussure for the greater benefit of the study of art history. Throughout the history of elaborating on the congeniality between Saussure and Peirce,“ logic” and “temporality” have been considered as keys to perceiving and interpreting inter-systemic similarities and differences of the arts. Meanwhile, the trope of “negation” has been utilized to align Saussure’s thoughts with those of the forerunners of analytical aesthetics such as Hegel. These two strands of developing semiotics cum semiology as a metalanguage have on the one hand dissolved the superficial distinctions assumed to exist between “symbol” and “sign”, and on the other renewed the trope of “allegory” as traditionally conceived in German Romanticism. By means of these enlightening revisions of semiotic theories, this study sheds light on (1) the revised notion of allegory which Saussure has sketched briefly towards the end of his orangery manuscripts; (2) the semiotic quality of certain conceptual tools which Hegel has developed in theorizing the relation between representation and language. All in all, this study suggests a connection between Hegel and Saussure on the basis of a non-teleological appreciation of the former.

Taking into account that the slogan of the next World Congress of Semiotics refers to global semiotics, we analyze, in this context, the different meanings of global and of the associated terms, such as civilization, culture and communication. We distinguish two notions of culture and several aspects of global semiotics, while civilization is shown to be the first proposed notion of culture. Communication is a much more complex activity, whose relation to sign process is not yet clarified. We conclude that no status of semiotics could be accepted that is incompatible with its global nature. Semiotics is a meta-discipline global in all respects. We point out in this way the complexity of the tasks of the 11th World Congress of Semiotics.

This paper addresses the marketing concept of brand equity from a semiotic perspective, by demonstrating why and how the notions of code/subcode are central in accounting for the multifarious dimensions of brand value. Based on the basic premises that surplus of meaning is reflected in surplus financial value in the concept of brand equity and that brand equity and code are fundamentally interdependent, an attempt is made to lay the conceptual foundations for operationalizing brand equity semiotically in a political economy of brands. The managerial implications in terms of planning for brand equity against the background of the relative novelty of brands as signs and different levels of codedness are discussed through the import of the planning platform of The Generative Matrix of Equity Potential.

In the dynamic relation of “the positive - the middle item - the alien”, the middle item is pressed by both ends. The pressure from the positive on the middle item, whose intensity is related to cultural tolerance, is driven by the need to maintain its position. That from the alien on the middle item comes from the claim for the selfoverturn of the subculture as well as the pursuit by art of its own markedness. At different levels of culture, the pressure on the middle item is different. The subtle and complex tension among the three influences the developmental trend of culture

More than two decades of violent conflict has earned Kashmir international fame as the most militarized place on earth and a nuclear flashpoint. Within India, the discourse on Kashmir is a polarizing force, with contesting meaning systems co-existing in parallel. Each of these meaning systems is cultivated through a complex of vested inter-textual narratives, including literature and film, and marketed as “authentic” interpretations of Kashmir via incestuous cross-referencing. In the absence of access to the “real” Kashmir in any direct way, these narratives serve as the only sources for Indians to construct their imagination of this troubled land. This paper uses the example of Kashmiriyat - a differently interpreted ethno-social construct - to illustrate the structural divisions in the narrativization of Kashmir. This is done via a Peircean reading of specimen texts that conform to three general categories - Hindu Indian nationalist, Muslim Indian nationalist of Kashmiri origin, and resident Kashmiri Muslim - and mapping their meaning using the trichotomy of Interpretants. In conclusion, it is proposed that any hope of a resolution of the Kashmir conflict needs to locate the discrete meaning systems illustrated by the paper in a “philosophical space” (Poole, 1972) - a space that allows a more inclusive and meaningful imagination, a different imagination of Kashmir.

The semiotic self derives from one’s idea of self. It consists of a trio of relations between one’s past self, present self and future self, in which the present self speaks to the future self by interpreting the past self. During such a reflexive process, the self may be bothered by the conflicting identities rising therein if particular identities force the self to move upward or downward, and fail to reach a coherent, continuous self. In the movie Black Swan, Nina’s inability to render the alternating role between the white swan and the black swan is a case in point. The self, beset with conflicting identities, finds its best expression in Nina’s confusing roles in face of her “ being” and “playing” on the stage. This paper investigates Nina’s textual identities by way of her semiotic self that houses her shifting identities.

In Sophocles’ play Oedipus at Colonus, Colonus, and more specifically the location near the sacred grove, is more than the setting of a story; it is a place significant in itself where the main character, Oedipus, will experience a transformation from “negation towards “affirmation in his transcendental journey. The place found by Oedipus allows him to acquire inner vision for understanding himself and others; it is where prophetic vision of the past will meet, in the memory of the subject, with prophetic visions of the future. His sense of guilt becomes more transparent and the tragic hero is revealed in his inner self as innocent.

The present paper sets for itself the modest task of pointing to a problem of metalanguage and object-language in political analysis, from a cultural semiotics point of view. The so-called post-foundationalist view, common in political discourse theories, is primarily characterized by the rejection of essentialist notions of ground for the social, and the inauguration of cultural and discursive characteristics into the wider social scientific paradigm. However, it seems that despite placing communication at the heart of their conceptions of discourse, the communicative character of constructing power relations remains undertheorized in those conceptions. This paper attempts to approach the above problem by way of the concepts of communication and autocommunication (Lotman). The outcomes stemming from the latter are unavoidable, since the result of any possible research (text) itself belongs to culture or a larger discourse and operates as the organizing function of the latter. Hence, research practice and its results always need to be looked at as mutually affecting each other.