Semiotica

Ma, Weiyi; Fiveash, Anna; Thompson, William Forde

doi: 10.1515/sem-2018-0139pmid: N/A

AbstractHow did human vocalizations come to acquire meaning in the evolution of our species? Charles Darwin proposed that language and music originated from a common emotional signal system based on the imitation and modification of sounds in nature. This protolanguage is thought to have diverged into two separate systems, with speech prioritizing referential functionality and music prioritizing emotional functionality. However, there has never been an attempt to empirically evaluate the hypothesis that a single communication system can split into two functionally distinct systems that are characterized by music- and languagelike properties. Here, we demonstrate that when referential and emotional functions are introduced into an artificial communication system, that system will diverge into vocalization forms with speech- and music-like properties, respectively. Participants heard novel vocalizations as part of a learning task. Half referred to physical entities and half functioned to communicate emotional states. Participants then reproduced each sound with the defined communicative intention in mind. Each recorded vocalization was used as the input for another participant in a serial reproduction paradigm, and this procedure was iterated to create 15 chains of five participants each. Referential vocalizations were rated as more speech-like, whereas emotional vocalizations were rated as more music-like, and this association was observed cross-culturally. In addition, a stable separation of the acoustic profiles of referential and emotional vocalizations emerged, with some attributes diverging immediately and others diverging gradually across iterations. The findings align with Darwin’s hypothesis and provide insight into the roles of biological and cultural evolution in the divergence of language and music.

doi: 10.1515/sem-2019-frontmatter229pmid: N/A

Karimnia, Amin; Mohammad Jafari, Fatemeh

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0105pmid: N/A

AbstractThis study investigated various manifestations of gravestone inscriptions to find different types of moves in the formation of such inscriptions in two Iranian social classes. The sample of the study included forty epitaphs in two shrines in the north and west of Tehran. Each epitaph was then photographed for analysis. Swales’ genre move model was used to analyze the data. The moves involved word choice, content, graphics, socio-cultural values, and written communicative practices. Considering socio-cultural factors characterizing the social classes, the results revealed four moves in the epitaphs in the Shrine located in north of Tehran, and eight moves in the Shrine located in west of Tehran. Out of the total of eight moves observed, three were different in the two classes. Comparing these patterns of moves and their frequencies, various emotional, structural, lexical, gender-specific, and age-specific differences were observed.

Ruben, Aarne

doi: 10.1515/sem-2018-0006pmid: N/A

AbstractThe early Pleistocene hunt scene was instant: when an antelope jerked in the water edge, the first “drivers” of the hunt were already in motion; the moment of outburst after a long ambush lasted less than second. The sudden hunt movements were typical of every prey-abundant landscape since even earlier geological periods. The analysis of Laetoli footprints made by our evolutionary ancestors more than three millions years ago indicates that in a randomly chosen moment, the landscape was full of animals of different species. The language used in the attack moment has to be agitative, only vowels in clausure between two consonants. During the process of further development, those consonants became more and more similar to delimitators, the borders where intrasemiotic realities translate extrasemiotic environment. Speech is an old Paleolithic tool for directing hunters to the useful positions. It was rather an instrument of a leader than grooming “clicks” of kin’s females.

Nwosu, Nnenna

doi: 10.1515/sem-2016-0170pmid: N/A

Résumé Cet article présente l’analyse de textes produits par des étudiants du niveau universitaire apprenant le français au Nigeria. Les textes ont été recueillis dans une situation formelle. L’objectif a été d’évaluer les compétences à l’écrit en français (compétences pragmatique, linguistique, discursive) des étudiants à tous les niveaux du programme de Licence au département de Langues européennes à l’Université de Lagos.Les étudiants ont été invités à rédiger un texte sur le sujet – « Narrez un évènement inoubliable que vous aurez vécu ». Les résultats de l’analyse montrent que leur LM-Igbo, facilite le transfert de compétence vers le français plutôt que leur langue de scolarisation – l’anglais.

Stano, Simona

doi: 10.1515/sem-2018-0091pmid: N/A

AbstractA number of studies have investigated glossolalia from different points of view, dealing with its various occurrences in the religious, psychopathological, and – more recently – also poetic and musical domains. The impossibility of fully understanding such a phenomenon through a purely linguistic approach has then increasingly emerged, pointing out the need to adopt a broader perspective. However, no extensive research has been developed on musical glossolalia – and especially on its non-religious forms – from such a point of view. The present paper aims precisely at filling this gap: philosophical discussion of existing literature and the semiotic analysis of particularly relevant case studies of glossolalia in the musical domain help us shed new light on the functioning mechanisms of such a phenomenon, hence suggesting effective tools for understanding how it acquires meaning and produces sense.

Safavi, Sarvenaz; Gümüş, Agah

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0095pmid: N/A

AbstractIn this article, the authors try to review the Paris-Match cover page (No. 326 from 1955) analyzed by Roland Barthes and introduces a new model of analyzing sign system from a new semiotic approach based on the new definition of the context. This research is based on three layers of the context and shows that understanding the cover page of a magazine or any other kind of text is not only absolute but also somehow relative due to the different background knowledge of the audience. This means that human sees the Context A, or what is designed, in the situation of Context B, or situational context, and interpret based on their Context C, or background knowledge of the audience.

Safavi, Sarvenaz; Gümüş, Agah

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0096pmid: N/A

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a new perspective of analyzing advertising designs from a new semiotic approach based on a new definition of the context. In order to achieve this goal, we will first of all give a definition for advertising design, and then Peirce’s idea about signs and definition of the science called semiotics will be necessary for starting the discussion. This research is based on three levels of context and shows that understanding an advertising design is not absolute but somehow relative because of differences in the background knowledge of the receivers. The conclusion of this research is that people understand advertising design based on their three contexts, which means seeing a so-called Context A, or better, what is designed, the receiver of the message will use a so-called Context B, or the context of situation, and also receives a so-called Context C, or the background knowledge in order to interpret what is selected and combined in Context A.

Theodosopoulou, Irene

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0123pmid: N/A

AbstractThis text is a first attempt of approaching traditional music, musical/poetic structures and ethnographic research semiotically. The basic elements of traditional music (motives, rhythms, phonetics, performance speeds, modal systems, musical instruments, repertoire), the musical/poetic structures with morphological types and formulas (musical and poetic), musical and non-musical codes (verbal and nonverbal) during a musical performance (nods, movements, etc.) as well as the ethnographic research itself with its own “performances” (discussions with musicians, recordings, transcriptions, analyses) constitute groups of “signs” and codes that, combined together, create complex frames of meanings and re-definitions not only among musicians and revelers but also among ethnographers and their interlocutors and among ethnographic “texts” and their representations after multiple readings. This text presents elements that emerged after an enduring field research in Crete (1998–2008). The use of semiotics in the study of traditional music and musical analysis can constitute a useful analysis tool for ethnographic research from planning to composing ethnographic “texts” (texts, transcriptions, analyses). This text highlights the necessity of initiating a dialogue concerning the aspects and perspectives of a semiotic approach to musicology and music ethnography.

Dureau, Yona

doi: 10.1515/sem-2017-0166pmid: N/A

AbstractIn Ancient times, synesthesia was a form of perception sought after, as developed both by Pythagoras and by Aristotle. It was a degree of perception sought after for the perception of the divine. It was part of a definite aesthetics because art was supposed to permit access to synesthesia through very precise rules defined by Aristotle in his Rhetoric. Synesthesia was not an anomalous form of perception experienced by some writers only. It was supposed to be induced by certain masterpieces, thus connecting the reader’s experience of synesthesia with the writer’s. The hypothesis of the present paper is that Nabokov knew those theories and that his knowledge of Ancient sources was not limited to Plato whom he quotes repeatedly in his interviews, but also comprised Aristotle. Not only did Nabokov know about that theory, some interviews, and some of his novels reveal a game with those sources and a quest for the reader’s synesthesia. The present article focuses on the two first pages of The Gift as a skillful implementation of Aristotle’s theory on synesthesia.