Volume 2013, Issue 193

This article starts from a typology of sign models and sign functions in order to assess Saussure's classification of linguistics as a branch of semiology. Saussure's definition of the linguistic sign raises the issue of a possible semiotic approach of the morpheme (unit of expression and content). In Saussure, and even more so in American structural linguistics, the approach of morphology is characterized by low “semiotic investment”; rarely, if at all, is the notion of “linguistic sign” made operational within their conception of morphological analysis, in spite of interesting opportunities for its use. In poststructuralist work (natural morphology; linguistic functionalism), the perspectives for a semiotic approach of morphology are promising. The final part of the paper formulates some requirements for a rigid approach of the morpheme as a linguistic sign.

The interrelation of metaphors and metonymies is manifested in non-verbal sign systems of visual art in various forms: in the fundamental intentions of the works, in the forming of the works' concepts, and in the sign systems of the texts. The systematicity of the interrelations between metaphors and metonymies on these levels can be revealed through the analysis of works by great masters of visual art from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this essay, Surikov's art serves an example. The metonymies of an intentional character appeared in his mind in his youth and were later realized in the ideas of his fundamental works, in their connections with various metaphors, in the composition of the works, and in various sign systems related to them. These connections are manifested in systems of differences and identities in layers of denotations and connotations. These systems are connected by common organizing structures that allow the sign formations of metaphors and metonymies to emerge.

Information theory indirectly confirms some fundamental structures in semiotics. By offering quantitative criteria for efficient transmission of data, it suggests by analogy ways of thinking about efficient communication in language and other media. The criterion in information theory for maximal capacity for information at the source leads to preference for independent data, which can be generalized to the semiotic principle of approximate independence among many kinds of emic units. This independence is closely related to what Kenneth L. Pike's tagmemic theory has called distribution . The criteria in information theory for faithful transmission of data lead by generalization to the semiotic principles of contrast and variation. Together, the aspects of contrast, variation, and distribution constitute fundamental structures characterizing the whole field of semiotics. They also lead to the development of three interlocking views of communication, the particle, wave and field view, which enable us to explain a number of more complicated phenomena in communication. These tools for semiotics receive confirmation from the quantitatively more specialized concerns of information theory.

A model of semiotic theory informed by information theory can be adapted to provide a simple theory concerning theories, and to model changes in theories over time. The model appropriates from tagmemic theory the fundamental features of contrast, variation, and distribution that characterize emic units. It then applies these features to second-order theories about theories. The specification of behavior of emic units at this second-order level puts constraints on the expected form of first-order theories and changes in time to first-order theories. A key feature in the constraint on first-order theories is the feature of symmetry. Second-order theory leads to an expectation that shifts in perspective in first-order theories can take three forms: (1) contrastive shifts, due to adding or subtracting emic units; (2) variational shifts, due to changes in probability estimates for co-occurrence; and (3) distributional shifts, due to global change in the system of units. The model for second-order theory is applied specifically to phonology, music, and Newton's laws of motion (treated as a semiotic system).

The relationship between language and a science of consciousness is rarely treated as crucial for the field's metatheory (i.e., its underlying philosophical assumptions about the role and nature of language). John Searle is among those thinkers who has given language due attention as part of his realist philosophy, and semantic questions turn out to be in the forefront of his plea for a scientific approach to the phenomenon of consciousness. This paper will consider Searle's philosophy of language in the light of an integrational theory of communication (Harris 1981, 1996, 1998). It is argued here that Searlean realism is grounded in a “reocentric” conception of the world, which (wrongly) assumes an isomorphic relation between language and what language refers to.

This paper seeks an explanation for the challenges faced by Semantic Web developers in achieving their vision, compared to the staggering near-instantaneous success of the World Wide Web. To this end it contrasts two broad philosophical understandings of meaning and argues that the choice between them carries real consequences for how developers attempt to engineer the Semantic Web. The first is Rene Descartes' “private,” static account of meaning (arguably dominant for the last four-hundred years in Western thought), which understands the meanings of signs as whatever their producers intend them to mean. The second is Charles Peirce's still relatively unknown “public,” evolutionary account of meaning, according to which the meaning of signs just is the way they are interpreted and used to produce further signs. It is argued that only the latter approach can avoid the unmanageable attempts to “preprocess” interpretation of signs on the Web that have dogged the project in its many stages, and thereby do justice to the scale, rapid changeability, and exciting possibilities of online information today.

This article explores the way in which puzzles are embedded within the Harry Potter novels by J. K. Rowling. Calling on ancient traditions, Rowling uses puzzles as a path towards immortality. Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione must simultaneously solve these puzzles and prevent the villain Voldemort from solving the puzzles and gaining eternal life. The puzzles then, become a metaphor for the discovery of the meaning of life, which, once discovered, allows one to master Death.

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.

This article develops a characterization of the postmodern subject having as pre-text the film Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola. To accomplish this goal, the essay links the semiotics of passion and the role of discursive manifestation in the construction of place through the recognition of the “sensitive body” while creating a cinematic experience. This experience transforms the urban space in a lived city and makes possible the encounter with the other and with the self. During the passional journey, contemporary subjectivity displays through sensitive dimensions that are to be interpreted through non-verbal semiotics; and paradise becomes the poetic habitation of the lived space.

Scholarship on borderline vagueness pinpoints Russell's 1923 essay titled “Vagueness” as the starting point for rigorous analysis. The importance of Russell's work over and above discussions of indeterminacy in antiquity and in the modern period is that Russell isolated borderline vagueness from indeterminacies that do not threaten classical logic. This paper argues that historical propriety concerning the analysis of borderline vagueness belongs to Peirce since he was the first to show that borderline vagueness is distinct from other forms of indeterminacy (e.g., generality, unspecificity, and uninformativeness) and that the application of vague predicates to borderline cases involves an intrinsic uncertainty.

Most times, when we meet unknown persons, our first judgment either consciously or unconsciously begins from observing their physical somatogenic features that may serve as effervescent semiotic materialities for assessing their personalities. These somatogenic features include physical marks on the body, skin texture, clothing, hair or the total configuration of body structure. Beyond signifying personality, it would seem that somatogenic features may also show occupational engagements. In this study, therefore, we specifically examined the semiosis (i.e., sign activity) of some bodily marks, textures of skins, and body structures of some traditional artisans in Nigeria. Our analysis was carried out using semiotic postulates such as Ouzman's (1998) notion of “mindscape,” Vogt's (1998) notion of “physiognomy,” and the postulate of “semasiology.” From our analysis it was established that certain somatic signs are self-referent and recursive signs whose hermeneutics can only be generated through a metalevel meaning construct. Some bodily marks, skin textures, and body structures can, therefore, be described as semiotic materialities that are capable of serving as regular and typical visual indices that reflect the occupational engagements of the bearers.

This article explores the basic assumptions of Generative Lexicon Theory (GL) and the implications for the general theory of the linguistic sign that arise from the generative mechanisms “selective binding,” “co-composition,” and “type coercion.” The article focuses on the assumption underlying GL that interpretation and polysemy are part of lexical structure. It is shown that encoded lexical meaning and inferred non-lexical knowledge cannot be clearly distinguished in GL. In order to be consistent, GL must also be supplemented by a theory of “normal language use” and be able to account for semantic underspecification in a semiotically coherent way.

This paper is concentrated on the phenomenon of silence in a situation, which lacks an actual signifier: silence is renderable, although not accessible for every hearer. Different strata of silence are represented and thoroughly depicted. The author observes several historical appearances of the phenomenon of quietness: pictorial, radio silence, conventional (arbitrary) silence. Silence is never perfect, it is only a harmony of accidental noises. Silence in the Hell-mouth tradition in folklore plays the role of semiotic relaxation time. There were devils in the seventeenth century Estonian witchcraft tradition. In cases when witches would not be quiet and revealed some parts of their identity to their enemies, e.g, through their magic spells, Satan could immediately run with them to a remota loca. Through the stages of civilization's formation, silence cast the following roles: discursive or memorial gaps, memory traumas. The symbols of local memory traumas are codes for the magical operators in the mouth of Hell: you should never disclose your name to the non-identity.

Trans-semiosis is a semiosis that operates when a traveler travels from one semiosphere to another. We have to suppose that there is a traveler whose behavior is semiotically interesting. Trans-semiosis is based on the following three concepts: first, semiosis, which consists of three things: the sign or representamen, the object, and the interpretant; second, the interpreter who operates the semiosis; and third, the semiosphere the interpreter lives in, a space characterized as having a center and a periphery. This paper defends the thesis that the semiosphere determines the semiosis and the trans-semiosis transforms the semiosphere. To illustrate our purpose we examine issues relating to translation and migrant literature, using the proposed trans-semiosis model.

The goal of the present study is to examine the extent and type of individual variation in the way participants in an interactive event, account for their own behavior. Two types of individual variation occur in the event chosen for in-depth analysis: (1) variation in the organization of ongoing behavior due to different mindsets on the part of the participants; (2) variation in the interpretation of aspects of ongoing behavior due to different feeling states on the part of the participants. These two types of individual variation are documented and their significance for understanding interaction, is explored.

This paper discusses how white, as a sign, was metaphorized in traditional Chinese and the change of its metaphoric nature in modern Chinese. Kress's theory of the motivated relation of signifier and signified and object construction theory in CDA are employed to discuss how the different metaphoric natures of white are constructed, reflecting different interests underlying different cognitive process of conceptualization of metaphors. Out of the “interest” in promoting obedience, and in setting up a unique Chinese cultural model, white in traditional Chinese language has a metaphoric nature of inferiority, mourning, and death. However, in modern Chinese it has a metaphoric nature of pure, which is consistent with the Western views of white. The change in its metaphoric nature reflects the ideological struggle between the powerful Western cultural model and traditional Chinese cultural model.