Volume 2015, Issue 205 -

Denotation is the literal sense of a word, while connotation is its extended sense. The current paper presents a cognitive computational model of the adjective’s connotation (e.g., sweet baby). We tested the model by developing a novel algorithm – ConnoSense – that identifies the sense of an attribute’s connotation. More specifically, ConnoSense identifies the sense of an attribute such as in the case of a “sweet smile” where the attribute/adjective “sweet” is used in the sense of “friendly.” Tested on a multiple-choice test of identifying the sense of a connotation (e.g., “dark thoughts”) the algorithm gained 90% accuracy and outperforms two other models that are based on vectorial semantics. These results support the validity of our model. The paper points at the importance of fusing ideas from the semiotics interpretative tradition with experimental psychological knowledge and novel methodologies of computational semantics.

The nature of the commodity is changing in the face of the digitalization and financialization of capital and wealth. Using a counterfeit Louis Vuitton bag from Beijing’s Silk Road Market as a metaphor for the commodity in general, this paper applies theoretical insights from Walter Benjamin, Guy Debord, Jean Baudrillard, and others, to explore the role of perception and representation in new modes of value ascription. I also examine commodification in contemporary capitalism as an object-sign process, concluding with a brief discussion of the ways the “counterfeit” metaphor connects to other economic processes and theories.

Interjections are exclamatory signs fostering a realistic conception of the perils and uncertainties of human experience. Natural interjections are reactionary signs in degenerate pre-signs (preverbs or prenouns), unconnected to other syntactic forms of grammar. The simplicity of natural interjections are distinguished from the more complex occasional interjections, expressed in full pseudo-sentences with grammatical constructions. The prehistory of the natural interjections are first the simple cries of babies, and second the artificial construction of pidgin (creolization) of mixed languages. In interjections, literal language becomes transformed into figurative and metaphorical “language,” that is intermedial speech with vocalization and gestures. Peirce’s “syntax” (Charles Sanders Peirce 1839–1914) argues for the pragmatic interjections in the exclamations of spontaneous cries and shouts. In the framework of Peirce’s logical categories, interjections represent first of secondness. The degenerate form analyzes the vague or indeterminate meaning through pictures of diagrams. Wittgenstein’s social “grammar” (Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951) of language-games is subject to cultural forms of life. Wittgenstein disagrees on accepting the “nonsensical” or meaningless interjections, but in his later writings he will agree to giving the interjections fuzzy meanings.

Quantum physics describes a strange, but exquisitely beautiful world in which science and the philosophical discipline of semiotics come into a perfect union with one another. Quantum physics describes the underlying basis of the realities of our world’s physical foundations. Semiotics explains the way in which we interact with this world. It is only through a synthesis of these two ways of knowledge that we can possibly hope to know this marvelous, awe-inspiring, yet puzzling world we live in and how our interaction with it plays a part in its existence as we experience it. Heisenberg’s concept of probability is essential to an understanding of this process. Through the process of semiosis, we create an entire world out of probabilities. What quantum physics indicates about how we influence this world in a semiotic fashion is of prime importance in understanding who we are as semiotic animals, the only animals who consciously use signs.

The term edusemiotics indicates a novel interdisciplinary field of inquiry at the intersection of educational philosophy, learning theory, and a science of signs. The article explores the semiotics of Tarot images as a mode of informal learning from experiences that are symbolically represented in the language of images as a feminine mode of expression. As embedded in the dynamics of semiosis, the process of reading and interpreting Tarot signs establishes a connection between self and other, subject and object, matter and mind, thus overcoming Cartesian dualism in practice. The implications are profound as Tarot edusemiotics contributes to our moral and intellectual growth.

Brands are semiotic systems that create value in the marketplace by differentiating competitors in a category, forming emotional connections with consumers, and aligning the company’s symbolic equities with contemporary cultural trends. The author aims to expand the current state of semiotics for marketing beyond advertising research to the whole gamut of media and consumer touch points in contemporary marketing, from strategic communication to retail design and consumer behavior. The importance of this paper is not limited to marketing, but raises important issues about connections heretofore ignored between semiotics, business, and the production of value in the marketplace.

Semiotic analysis of the role of the observer in the theory of relativity and in quantum mechanics shows the semiotic function of basic symmetries, such as symmetries under translation and rotation. How can semiotics be relevant to theories in physics? It is always human beings who form the theories. In the process of theory formation and communication, they rely on semiotic systems. Included among these systems is the semiotics involved in our pre-theoretical human understanding of space, time, and motion. Semiotic systems thereby have an influence on theories in physics. As a result, key concepts in fundamental physical theory have affinities with semiotics. In terms of Kenneth Pike’s tagmemic theory, applied as a theory of theories, all symmetries take the form of distributional constraints. The additional symmetry under Lorentz transformations introduced by the special theory of relativity fits into the same pattern. In addition, constraints introduced by the addition of general relativity suggest the form and limitations that might be taken by a “theory of everything” encompassing general relativity and quantum field theory.

This paper studies the public display of horizontal hierarchies. Drawing on a naturalistic paradigm, audio- and videotaped presentations of college students were investigated. The students presented in class before their peers. Excerpts that comprise disagreement between equals were selected for analysis. The primary assumption was that disagreements can serve as a potential risk to horizontal hierarchies. Hence, they serve as an interesting source for exploring if and how colleagueship is sustained. The analysis shows the use of various verbal and nonverbal semiotic resources (including humor), which display the shift students make between assuming power and signaling equality. The sequential organization of disagreements (detailed in the paper) pertains to the building blocks (i.e., a contest and a retreat from confrontational positions) that comprise horizontal hierarchy. These building blocks are exhibited in different turns and within turn-constructional components.

The issue of cultural appropriation is at the crux of adaptation studies with emphasis on what constitute cultural junctures in cinematic renditions of textual sources, rather than how formal processes facilitate contextual and intertextual overlap. This paper explores processes for the appropriation of textual polysemy in visual terms in film. Drawing on classical semiotics and film semiotics, I propose a theoretical model for reconstructing the effect of contextual complexity and overlap manifest in textual polysemy in terms of visual signification in film. The proposed model is applied in an analysis the recurrent rose imagery in American Beauty (Sam Mendes 1999).

Résumé Cet article vise à présenter la Sémiotique Cognitive comme un modèle de recherche capable de décrire une partie des processus cognitifs sous-jacents au sens délirant. Plus précisément, il est proposé ici que la reformulation théorique du modèle d’intégration conceptuelle proposée par Brandt et Brandt (2005) peut soutenir la description d’une partie du processus de signification délirante dans la schizophrénie. On a analysé des entrevues et des conversations spontanées d’une patiente souffrant de schizophrénie. Il s’agit d’un cas typique présentant des symptômes très semblables aux définitions traditionnelles et aux types communément trouvés dans la pratique clinique. L’étude de cas présentée ici suggère qu’une forme schématique d’interaction sémiotique compose le noyau des événements délirants de cette patiente. Ce noyau conceptuel est décrit comme une sorte d’interaction iconique entre un antagoniste et le sujet, tel que décrit par Brandt (2007). Ce schéma d’interaction est une forme élémentaire d’interprétation et d’organisation de l’expérience de la patiente. Une partie de la signification délirante peut être comprise à travers les processus d’intégration conceptuelle organisée par ces formes sémiotiques. En somme, ces formes sont comme des schémas de pertinence qui organisent l’interprétation délirante.

What makes death-related news events internationally appealing? How is the visual coverage of grief tailored for the needs of the international market? And how are the mechanisms for such coverage operated in the field by international news agencies’ photographers? In this article, I conduct an interpretive analysis of the funeral of an Israeli officer as it was covered by an Israeli Reuters photographer and an analysis of the “picture of the event” selected for distribution by the photographer. It demonstrates how international news institutions tailor the visual coverage of a local funeral to the complex demands of the international market.

Through the empirical analysis of a concrete phenomenon (the traveler’s encounter with another culture), the authors attempt to describe what criteria people apply in everyday life to determine the place of a particular culture (their own culture and the foreign culture) within a (subjective) hierarchy. They distinguish nine dimensions of classification: according to their hypothesis travelers used a combination of these criteria to create their subjective notion of the hierarchy of different cultures. The authors find that we also use these same criteria for the formation of a vertical hierarchy in other areas of (socio)semiosis (for example, in forming the hierarchy of foods, or of social groups that distinguish themselves from each other on the basis of differences in linguistic usage). The authors assume that the analytical dimensions proposed can be applied uniformly in all cases when sociosemiotics wishes to describe the sign system of social hierarchies, vertical classifications, and self-classifications.

This article deals with semiotic modeling in writing. The process of modeling is involved in the creation of new scripts and alphabets. The narrative describes the so called ABC-principle in action. Since the ABC code is also a text, the letters have meaningful collocations and the letter names have meaningful associations. The sequence of letters in an ABC is a meaningful syntagm within a ritual text. We shall attempt to prove that these parts of an ABC are meaningful micro-texts that constitute a model of the world as conceived in Indo-European culture. Together with rituals, alphabets have contributed to the formation of concepts of the physical world and cultural identities.