Semiotica

Zolyan, Suren T.; Zhdanov, Renad I.

doi: 10.1515/sem-2016-0214pmid: N/A

AbstractThe similarity between language and genetic information transmission processing has been recognized since molecular genetics was founded. Numerous attempts have been made to use linguistics techniques to decipher protein genes. The modest informational impact of various approaches to decoding the “protein language” was predictable: this type of technique is limited by the processes of encoding and at best helps compile a dictionary of units. However, this technique cannot describe a language and identify the semantic and textual structures that are decisive for communication. Thus, the functions of a large amount of non-coding DNA remain unclear. A text (but not a sign) should be regarded as an artefact of the creation, transmission, conservation and transformation of information. A general theory of text should be capable of describing linguistic texts and the process of their structuring, functioning and transformation. It should also be able to represent the biochemical structure of a genome as a hypertext that consists of an ordered subset of other texts. A text can be considered to be a quasi-organism that possesses memory, creative-cognitive characteristics and communicative force, and a cell can be considered as a quasi-intelligence capable of manipulating abstract semiotic entities. Such an approach requires the construction of a new, multimodal, and text-oriented version of semiotics (next-generation semiotics), in which text and context are the basic concepts and signs and meanings are considered to be context-dependent variables and, simultaneously, context-forming operators.

doi: 10.1515/sem-2018-frontmatter225pmid: N/A

West, Donna E.

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0042pmid: N/A

AbstractDirecting attention to features in the here and now (via individual or joint ventures) is the single, most basic purpose for Dicisigns in human ontogeny. To effectively individuate in the stream of relational awareness, attentional devices must maximize notice of the dynamicity of primary graphical displays. This is a complex process, in that it requires codification of several interconnected but individualized spatial systems and event correlates: associating objects with locations, utilizing other objects as reference points, using intrinsic sidedness and absolute points of reference to orient, and anticipating potential alterations of participants within the spatial array. Early awareness of shifting object location relies upon a double sign (index, icon) to identify and implement landmarks for precise object location. Afterward, establishing other persons/objects as referent points becomes critical. Determining orientation and motility ultimately requires individuating-shape representamen which can leverage spatial inferencing –defining participant action schemes via event profiles. In other words, expectations of action paths which attentional signs afford drives well-formed abductions of participants’ likely momentary orientational shifts. Nonetheless, to successfully predict these shifts, Dicisigns must supersede affiliation with single energetic interpretants; they need to incorporate logical interpretants realized in agent-receiver role reciprocation.

Aames, Jimmy

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0005pmid: N/A

AbstractThere seem to be two distinct aspects to the role played by the Interpretant in Peirce’s account of the sign relation. On the one hand, the Interpretant is said to establish the relation between the Sign and Object. That is, the Sign can “stand for” its Object, and thereby actually function as a Sign, only by virtue of its being interpreted as such by an Interpretant. On the other hand, the Interpretant is said to be “determined” by the Sign in such a way that it is thereby mediately determined by the Sign’s Object. How can we understand the relation between these two aspects of the Interpretant? This is the question with which this paper is concerned. I begin by drawing a distinction between what I call the first-order function and second-order function of the Interpretant, and illustrating this distinction using Peirce’s example of comparing the letters p and b in § 9 of the 1867 “On a New List of Categories.” I then show that this same distinction can be discerned in a significant passage in the second section of Peirce’s 1903 “A Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic,” as well as in his early definition of the Interpretant in the “New List.” This double function of the Interpretant has been noted in the Peircean literature, specifically by Joseph Ransdell in his 1966 dissertation, and more recently by André De Tienne. However, an important aspect of what I call the second-order function of the Interpretant remains unclarified in Ransdell and De Tienne’s approaches, namely, its relation to the logical operation of hypostatic abstraction. I will show that the Interpretant, in its second-order function, plays a role formally identical in the sign process to the role played by hypostatic abstraction in Peirce’s demonstrations of the Reduction Thesis. This formal identity will afford us with a way of understanding the relation between the two aspects of the Interpretant in terms of hypostatic abstraction.

Lee, Ji Hwan

doi: 10.1515/sem-2016-0176pmid: N/A

AbstractCognition consists of multiple layers. Each neuron group in layers processes information and transmits it to other layers. The more information is integrated, the more obvious and usable signs become. Horizontally, signs in semiosis are associated and mediated with each other. Vertically, they collaborate beyond the horizon; from sensory neuron to reflective consciousness. Semiosis involves trying to reach final interpretant through following a possible interpretation-course by the force of a guiding principle. Whereas, in trans-semiosis, we attempt to integrate two semioses despite their conceptual gap. In that situation, transcendence occurs. If integration is impossible, semiosis would rev up excessively. Accordingly, intense neural stimulations are generated. Once probable routes of interpretation have rapidly accumulated in quantity, they cross a threshold where restrictions are broken or do not exist. Then, we jump to a stable belief, attaining trans-interpretance that has competence for casually suturing a conceptual gap without any adequate foundation. The overflow of stimulation integrates into transcendence feelings that deviate from cognitive boundaries. That momentary strong feelings and trans-interpretance are connected with each other by a memory mechanism. Trans-interpretance creation leaves some unresolved surplus, reminding us of the once ignored gap and reactivate semiosis. However, if trans-interpretance is reformed and semiosis comes to a lull again, they can be strengthened.

Durst-Andersen, Per; Cobley, Paul

doi: 10.1515/sem-2016-0228pmid: N/A

AbstractThis paper addresses the need for a model of communication with a new, holistic conception of language within it. The resultant process model is called the Communicative Wheel. It consists of three communicative products: the sender’s input corresponding to his/her experience of a situation (symptom), an output corresponding to a piece of information to the receiver (signal), and the receiver’s intake corresponding to a description of the situation referred to (model). What the model of the wheel suggests, is that the understanding of “utterance” as symbolic needs to be replaced by an understanding of it as indexical.

Matus, Pablo

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0019pmid: N/A

AbstractAlthough representation may be a recurrent theme in research on journalism and advertising, as well as in studies of other social discourses, there may be less clarity regarding its epistemological and methodological aspects. One example is the frequent use of Social Representations Theory (Moscovici), despite its research object is a cognitive phenomenon. Beginning with a literature review in which I examine several sources (for example, sign theory, the philosophy of language, and rhetoric), the following article presents a theory of discursive representation, as well as associated semiotic, epistemological, and methodological theories. My aim is to provide a conceptual framework to help guide and prompt further research in this area.

Davide Guagnano, Giacinto; Mininni, Giuseppe

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0003pmid: N/A

AbstractWhat can be translated from one language to another? What relationship exists between the translator and the text being translated? This article shows how Peirce’s semiotics, with its array of concepts that function as tools for the textual analysis, can shed a clarifying light on the explorative nature of a translation. In fact, what is described is the dynamic focusing on a transfer of meaning from one text to another, characteristic of human language, the presence of which can be observed in those circumstances where an “abductive” performance is specifically required, such as in the translation.

Meir Dviri, Mina

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0032pmid: N/A

AbstractMythic symbolic type is a unique cultural structure that permits no exit to the one who has lost his “self” to it. The semi-commune Little Home housed a community of mythic symbolic types which engendered a ritual of their own in which the men trapped within the type moved between its two edges, purity and impurity. But since there is no exit from the type, the question is how and when the ritual begins and ends? What kind of ritual is the mythic symbolic type’s? As an answer, the following article presents an ethnography of the ritual in the semi-commune Little Home where mythic symbolic type was found, and a conceptual map of this world with the help of Bateson’s play paradox and a self-correcting model.

Vayo, Brendon

doi: 10.1515/sem-2016-0037pmid: N/A

AbstractIn this essay, I argue that the apparent historical inaccuracies contained within Lewis Nordan’s Wolf Whistle (Nordan, Lewis. 2003 [1993]. Wolf Whistle. Chapel Hill: Algonquin) represent a systematic repeal of the controversial history surrounding the murder of Emmett Till in 1955. Nordan reconstitutes the principle characters to function as iconoclasms of the historical record. As iconoclasms, these representations undermine our culture’s accepted model of history, what Hayden White terms the “historical account” (White, Hayden. 1975. Metahistory: The historical imagination in nineteenth-century Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: 30).